Broken Memories
by randomLlama
Summary: Meet Saru Nishizawa, a typical 16 year old girl, with a past mysterious and completely known to her. This tale begins when Saru enters a new school and Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kurama, and Hiei meet, and start a few crazed adventures...
1. Schools and Demons

_Broken Memories_

_A Yu Yu Hakusho Story_

**A/N: the character's name is Saru Nishizawa. Looks 15, but that will be explained, and a mysterious past--which she is fully aware of.**

* * *

Bitter thoughts were in her mind as she walked from her new home to a school, with a dumb uniform, and recalled that joyus moment when her alcoholic for a father told her...

_"Saru" The old man said, "here's the uniform, the address and your class schedule, you start tomorrow." She glared at her father's retreating back and gripped the items tightly then walked to her room._ 'Stupid old man,' _she mused_, 'the dumb fuck doesn't realize that tomorrow is Sunday.'

She gave a cold laugh when she turned the corner, there wasn't anything more she'd like to do that murder him, and for a bonus do it with alcohol poisoning! If not for her seven older brothers living with her, she would have carried out her plan, alas more than half are on his side. Sighing in defeat she finally reached the dreaded building where there are girls and boys running around with similar colored outfits.

"Can I help you?" A pleasant, calm voice from a female secretary asked Saru as she entered, to which she said 'yes' and asked where her classes were. Saru sighed once again, she hated being 'vulnerable' in an unknown situation, and trudged off in the direction the lady said. Half way there, and there was already trouble...

"Lookit, freshmeat!" A deep male voice called from behind her, as it laughed with a companion, "Let's see what you got." He then reached right over Saru's head, grabbed the schedule and began looking at it, showing his friend as well.

"Hand that over!" She demanded, but it felt useless, and really embarrassing as she glared at the two. "Now, now," The tall one cooed, his voice filled with bad intentions, "This is a real disappointment. That such a cute girl is not in a time when I can work my magic." Saru glared at him harder when an all too familiar glint flashed in his eyes as he and his buddy laughed again.

"Not likely," swiping the paper back, she turned on her heels, "Besides, you pathetic boys couldn't handle me."

That was a mistake, and the next thing Saru knew she was pinned against the wall both hands above her head, the sme two boys standing there blocking the light because of their height. "Couldn't handle you eh?" The taller one spoke, "well it seems we're doing a pretty good job at the moment." Again the tone Saru hated the most, and she tried to struggle. When she realized her efferts are in vain she gave up, which she hated mroe because their free hands started unremorsefully wandering up and down her small, curvasceous body. All the while thier incedeous laughter rang so loud in her ears, and finally she snapped, "LET GO OF ME YOU BASTARDS!"

Her eyes shot open in a glare and the boys then fell over unconscious, and when the hallway was still she regained her calm, almost innocent composure and walked to her classroom. However unknown to her, some one had been watching, and he followed her keeping to the shadows.

"Listen up!" The teacher bellowed, "This is Nishizawa Saru-chan, I expect everyone of you to make her less uncomfortable. Now then Today's lesson..." When Saru took her seat she knew not one of them would talk to her, for when she was standing at the front she could see fear and intimidation in their eyes, and it made her smile. That and she had done a quick mind sweep of the students to see what their opinions were of her, not like she cared much anyway, but just to see. Thus began a dull, and very, very long day, right up until the lunch hour...

"Konnichiwa Saru-chan," a pleasant male voice sounded, and her eyes shifted to look upon the face. A boy with long red hair and vibrant green eyes, who seemed unaffected by her cold gaze, "May I eat with you?" He asked politely pulling out a box lunch and sitting without waiting for her answer.

"Wow, seven brothers..." Shuichi said after she had mentioned it, they had been having small talk all this time while eating. However in th midst of the peaceful meal Saru caught a thought of murder, as well as the feeling of a demon lurking near by, and it seems Shuichi has noticed too because even though it was subtle Saru noticed he became tense as well and was searching withouth raising suspicion.

"You know about demons?" Shuichi murmured the question to Saru and she nodded muttering back, "I may know more than you think." She waited a while tracking the thought and finding it's origon, "But I wish it would stop moving." "You can track its movements?" He asked amazed by the knowledge Saru had. "I can track its thoughts, just like your friend Hiei-kun," Saru smirked, "got him."

She sent a peircing glare to the demon who sat perched on top of the school roof, and as the demon tried to struggle Saru kept a strong lock on his body, "Shuihci-kun he's on the roof." "Right," he responded to her and glanced to see the demon as well, and then used one of his deadly seeds to kill him. When Saru felt no more struggle she released the dead body, and focused on eating her lunch. "That it? You're just going to ignore it?" Shuichi asked her seeing her limited interest in the dead demon.

"Not my problem anymore, seeing as it was targeting me, and now it's the Spirit Dectives problem to clean the body before it attracts more demons." She answered with a bit of a smug tone, and added, "You better get on that. Kurama-kun." Saru shot him a knowing glance as he got up with his finished lunch and headed for the rooftops.

After the lunch bell went, she trudged back to her next class, and waited for the day to end. Saru stood out of her desk stretching, that had been one _long_ lecture, and was glad when she could go home and relax with her seven...noisy...brothers, okay almost glad its over. She sighed heading off the school property and started the few block walk home, only to get the feeling she was being followed, and was right as four minds were close behind her.

"Are you going to stalk me or just ask me something?" She asked loud enough for the followers to hear, which one of them was Shuichi-kun, and that wasn't much of a surprise.

"How did you know?" A slick-black-haired boy ran in front of Saru blocking her path. "Easy, your simple thoughts were shouting in my head, and not just your's Yusuke-kun, but Kuwabara-kun's as well." Saru answered, "and if you'll escuse me, I have to get home." She walked past him leaving a gaping mouth and shocked expression on his face, and she could hear Kuwabara's laugh fade as she got further from them.

"Saru!" A familiar voice sounded in front of her, and her locked onto the form of her brother Kyo, she waved calling "Kyonchi!"

"Don't call me that," he thwacked her upside the head as they walked the rest of the way to their house.

"So that's one of her brothers?" Kurama murmured to himself.


	2. A Near Clean Get Away

(A/N: if ya forgot, Saru just walked off meeting with her brother Kyo, and now we begin...)

"So that's one of her brothers?" Kurama asked himself out loud, getting everybody's attention.

"_One of_, meaning she has more than two I'm guessing?" Yusuke shot the redhead a quizzical glance.

Kurama nodded, "She has seven."

"SEVEN!" Kuwabara's voice sounded dumbly, "How do you know this?"

"Obviously she told to him, idiot," Hiei answered more than plenty annoyed.

"Shut it, shrimp! Didn't you know? It would have been easy for you to read her mind wouldn't it?"

"Would have been, yes, if she didn't have ESP of her own and put a blockade on her mind." The short demon glared at Kuwabara. Yusuke got tired of their relentless arguing and called it off, and they walked back to their homes, but since Hiei didn't technically have a home in the human world, he decided to investigate more of this Saru Nishizawa.

"SARU-CHAN! What's for dinner? When's dinner?" Matosha whined walking in the kitchen, standing over her shoulder smelling the aroma of food.

"Don't ask me! You know I can't cook, Hitomi asked me to watch it so you don't eat it all before!" She managed to fend off her brother, just as Hitomi walked in to finish.

That night Saru was lying face up on her bed sighing, after finishing the stupid easy homework, and thinking about her plans for murdering her father. It wasn't long before she got the feeling of being watched, and doing a quick scan with her mind the moment she picked it up, the foreign mind disappeared. Saru sat up thinking about this 'stalker', because for the brief moment she was in his mind, she recognized it as Hiei as a memory flowed in her head. . .

_"What is that?" a very young Saru asked a black dot falling in the sky, "oh shit!" That was no dot, but a boy falling, and Saru quickly changed into a White dragon and flew up to rescue the boy. _

_Back on the ground he opened his eyes to reveal big, frightened, red eyes and in self defense burned Saru's massive paw and tried to run. With ease Saru landed in front of him, then changed back to her regular appearance, "Please stop. I didn't mean to scare you." _

_"What the hell are you?" The boy was definitely scared, and Saru felt a little hurt to be yelled at like that. _

_"My name is Saru," She smiled, "and I've got two dragon spirits living inside me because my parents were two different dragons! What's your name?" The boy seemed to be less frightened at Saru friendly tone and smile, and he looked down at the ground feeling an odd rush of blood to his cheeks, "My name's--" _

**Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, turned off** "Saru wake up, you're going to be late for school." the voice of a wise, elderly brother named Shigure said shaking the sleeping girl, who mumbled rolling away from the hand, "Uhm, Saru..." Shigure's face became blank when Saru rolled off the edge of the bed, which woke her immediately.

"Shigure? What time 'sit?" She mumbled yawning.

"Time enough for you to be late for school," Shigure smiled at her, "In about 2 minutes." Then were sounds of a panicing girl and an amused brother walking out of her room to give her privacy.

"Saru, here's your--" "Lunch!" Saru finished Hitomi's sentence as she raced past him taking the box lunch from his hand, "Bye!" Running one block she checker her watch, "Damnit! I'm not gunna make it, unless..." Saru then ducked into an abandoned alley way, and made sure no human was around to see, as she sprouted one white, one black dragon wing. With a few quick pumps of the massive wings she flew to the school with no trouble, and as for any mortal who did she her in the air, she would trace their mind, erase that memory and replace it with one of a bird or airplane.

She landed on the roof easily and headed for the stair exit, and was going to make it on time if not for a demon standing in her way. '_It's him..._' Saru's mind froze as did her body when her eyes fell upon this demon. **bing** **bong** Saru was snapped out of her trance when the bell went, signalling the fact she's now late, and her only entrance to the school was behind the demon.

"We'll meet later." He said simply then seemed to vanish in a blur. All she managed to do was stand there until she came to her sense, "damnit!"

"Saru-chan, take this slip and have the secretary sign for it," The teacher said holding a yellow slip of paper, while the students in her class were trying hard not to laugh. "Yes, sensei." Saru replied grabbing the paper and head hung in humiliation she turned and walked tot he office the laughter following her.

"Late on the second day?" Shuichi asked biting at his lunch, "That doesn't sound too off for a student here."

"Well, you can thank your good friend Hiei-kun for that." Saru grumbled, glaring daggers at the air in front of her face, and then remembered what he said. In a spit of rage at him, she shouted, "Of coarse we'll meet again! I have to meet with Koenma-san to talk about the demon I helped kill!"

Shuichi was surprised by her outburst and looked around with a half worried half amused expression, as the passer by's were concerned for her mental well being. Shuichi then timidly turned back to the girl, "Are you done now?"

"Yeah." Saru sighed, and continued to consume the yumminess of Hitomi's cooking. She sighed again, feeling content and satisfied after finishing the food, and leaned back in the grass under a tree on the school grounds. Letting the breeze carry the scent of autumn, Saru felt that she could get used to humans in this place, and she sighed closing her eyes.

"Saru-chan, can I ask you two questions?" Shuichi's voice said from her left.

"What's the second?"

"How do you know Hiei-kun, and about the Spirit Detectives?"

Her eyes opened becoming unusually serious, "That's more like two questions in one." She sat up, "I'll asnwer if you answer this one: How many people--demons included--actually know how Hiei-kun survived the fall from the Koorime City?"

"I've heard rumors that--" Shuichi started to say but Saru interrupted him. "Rumors aren't actually knowing the truth, remember that." She smirked at him when the lunch bell went, and she stood up gathering her empty lunch box, "I'll see you after school, Shuichi-kun."

Shuichi sat there, watching her back disappear into the building, thinking to himself; '_how much does she actually know about Hiei and the Spirit Detectives?_'

"Hiei..." Shuichi said as he saw his friend standing under a tree at the end of school, "What are you doing here?"

"You know why I'm here, Kurama," Hiei said turning to walk in the direction of Yusuke Uremashi and Kuwabara Kazuma's school. He took two steps when he realized Kurama wasn't following, "Aren't you coming?"

"Hiei," Kurama said, but he didn't kow if he should actually ask him, "Have you met Saru-chan before?"

"No." The fire demon answered coldly, "Now let's go pick up Uremashi and Kazuma, and retreive Saru-chan for Koenma-san. And a word of advice, sometimes the past should stay in the past." Kurama nodded solonmly and followed his friend to meet his other friends. Yet something tuggeed at the fox spirit's mind, '_If Hiei said "the past should stay in the past", then wouldn't that mean he _has_ met her before? But then why would he-_'

"Hey! Kurama-kun, Hiei-kun!" a female voice cut through his thoughts as the two reached the other's school.

"Hello, Keiko-chan," Kurama smiled pleasantly, "Where's Yusuke-kun?"

"He'll get here eventually," Keiko answered as Kuwabara walked up.

"It's been over an hour, what could be taking him?" Kuwabara asked out loud.

"Not sure, but we can ask when he gets here.." Kurama said, knowing that he would indeed come soon, and he was right, "There he comes. Yusuke-kun, what took you?"

"Dumb teachers..." The teen grumbled pressing on ward, "Well let's get this over with." The others nodded and followed after him.

Saru had just finished eating dinner with her brothers and placed her dishes in the sink, when she sensed the four boys' minds approaching, and upon reading the two humans' she knew she had to get out of the house for that encounter. "Saru-chan! Go pick up the trash that's been blown into our backyard!" Hatsuharu called from the back door. This was the oppurtinity she needed, "Okay!" She called back passing him and made sure her brothers couldn't see.

'_Turn around, and go through the alley way, then come to my house from the back yard._' Saru's message to the boys played in all their head's, which only got a small indescicive conversation, untill Kurama convinced them otherwise.

"Saru-chan?" Kurama's voice came from beyond her fence, when the four boys and girlwandered to her house only to see her completely unfazed by their arrival.

"I know I have to meet Koenma-sama, but there's the issue of leaving my house undetected," Saru said before any of them could even say anything related to that subject, which sparked shocked and confused looks on the humans. "But how did you--" Keiko started to ask, but Saru interrupted her, "Easy, I can read your minds much like Hiei-kun there. Also, there's a difference between human and demon minds, which is how easily they can be read. Normally demons would have a small barrier or have developed that skill completely, while humans have little to no barrier, or they train themselves the same as demons to master that skill."

She smirked as the humans looked shocked, and then shock followed quickly by worry came to her expressions, "we have to leave now!"

"Why?" Yusuke asked as she quickly walked to the boys and girl, "What's with this attitude?"

"Because, one of my brother's saw you here, and soon you'll be beaten to a pulp unless we move now." Saru explained, "NOW!" Without further question the four boys and girl walked through the gate they came through leaving the seven brothers. Saru gave a breath of releif when she couldn't sense any of her brothers' minds following, "shall we get this over with?"

"The sooner this is finished the sooner we can forget about her," Hiei muttered to himself as a portal opened for them, and when they walked through they were greeted by Botan.

"So this is Saru-chan?" Botan said looking at the girl like a hawk circling its prey.

"I'm not going to eat anyone," Saru sighed reading Botan's mind, "and there's no shock in Koenma-sama having a body similar to a toddlers."

"Great! Then let's go!" the blue haired girl smiled and grabbed Saru's hand dragging her through two gigantic doors, "Koenma-san! Saru-chan is here!"

"Excellent," The ruler said behind a mountain of paperwork, "I'll talk to her from here, dismissed Botan-chan." The ferry-woman bowed and left. However the ruler stayed quiet and a feeling of uneasiness came to Saru's mind.

"I was impressed with your work on that demon Saru-chan," Koenma's voice said cutting the silence like a knife through pea soup, "AndI suppose you know why I called you here?"

"Actually no, Koenma-sama," Saru said politely, "I don't read the mind of my superiors, like yourself."

"Oh? Well then, have a seat and I shall explain..."

Outside the door, Yusuke and Kuwabara tried to listen through the key hole of the gigantic doors, but it was in vain for there was a simple charm cast that wouldn't allow sounds to leave the room. "Shut up Yusuke-kun, I can't hear anything!" Kuwabara whispered hoarsely. "You shut up, you're making more noise than me!" Yusuke whispered back starting a pointless argument between the friends.

Kurama sighed as Hiei huffed looking away from the door, then glanced from the corner of his eyes sensing Saru walking towards the door, "You two might want to get away from the door." However, the two didn't even hear his advice as Saru opened the door causing the humans to fall on top of her with a loud thump.

"See, now we can hear, I told you to be quiet!" Yusuke bellowed unaware of what had happened. The event didn't come to Kuwabara's mind either as he yelled back at Yusuke right in Saru's face.

**W-H-A-C-K--W-H-A-C-K**! Yusuke and Kuwabara then rolled opposite sides clutching the backs of their heads in pain, "Botan-chan, what the hell was that for?"

"Because you two are so thick," The blue-haired ferry woman answered helping Saru off the ground, "that you didn't even realize that you were squishing Saru-chan!" They both stopped arguing as they recalled the inccident, "Sumimasen.." Both said as an apology, embarressment on their cheeks.

"What did Koenma-san want?" Kurama's ever so sharp mind questioned Saru, who avoided eye contact with everyone, "He wanted me to help with the next mission."

"A girl can't help us!" Yusuke dumbly stated, causing another whack across the head with an ore from Botan, "I mean, how can you help us Saru-chan?"

Saru smirked, giving Yusuke a piece of paper with the details for their mission, "But in return, Koenma-sama said that you guys have to leave me the hell alone after this." She then walked off getting Botan to show her the way out.

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Okay! this will continue in next chappie! ttfn! I think this has gotten long enough... 


	3. Music As The Enemy

(A/N: I'm back with chappie three! hope this will be good. ! ) **begin**!

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"Korou?" Yusuke asked out loud as the four boys, plus Keiko and Botan (in desguise) walked through the back alley that lead them to Saru's house. 

"Apparently Koenma-san's knowledge of him, is that he is a music master, but doesn't tell what kind of powers he has." Shuichi thought out loud, thinking about the paper with his information.

Meanwhile, in Saru's house, she sat in her room the discussion with Koenma-sama running through her mind over and over...

_"There is a problem with you helping,Saru-chan." Koenma's voice became unusually grave as he spoke. _

_"And that would be...?" Saru was almost afraid to hear the answer, but she had to know. _

_"Saru-chan, are you sure you want to know?" Saru nodded, as Koenma sighed explaining, "You will bring this group closer at a terrible cost, and when everything is over it will all fall apart again. Not only that, Hiei's memories must be returned to him, and you're the only one who has them. Don't make me tell him you have them, he'll do anything to get them back, and I mean _anything_, you understand Saru-chan?"_

_"Yes, I understand," Saru managed to say even though there was an incredible lump in her throat, "Is that all?" _

_"Yes, give this paper to Yusuke," The small ruler handed a piece of paper with the information about the misson to Saru, "And good luck." _

_Saru nodded, grabbed the paper and walked to the door as Koenma turned in his chair mumbling to himself, "There's a world of hurt awaiting you Saru-chan... Face it with the friends you lost, the friends you made, and the friends you kept.."_

Her recollection became interrupted as she sensed the minds approaching, and quickly jumped out of her window without suspiscion, then met them just outside her backyard gate, "Ready?" She smiled.

"Yeah, let's just get this over with," Yususke grumbled, he really didn't want a girl's help with the mission but in the letter, Saru's help would be most efficient.

The seven teens walked to the edge of a nearby forest in a park where Koenma had written in his letter; they had arrived there as the sun was sinking towards to horizon. The Spirit Detectives, and the Ferry woman, and Keiko, and Saru wandered further intot he woods anearing where Koenma had described where Korou would appear.

"So we have to wait here until he shows up?" Kuwabara asked clearifying out loud.

"Yes," Kurama answered, "But just to make sure, shouldn't we have some sort of bait for him?"

"But what kind of...hmm?" Yusuke started looking at every one that was gathered, but then smiled evily when his eyes landed on Saru.

"huh? Oh no you don't!" Saru said stubbornly placing her hands on her hips, "No!"

"But you'd be perfect!" Yusuke argued back.

"HOW?"

"Simple, the demon we're looking for preys on young girls' souls, and-"

"So why not Keiko-chan?" Saru interrupted, "Kicking the demon's ass would be easier if you were defending Keiko-chan."

"True, but I care a lot for her, I care enough not to put her in danger in the first place." Yusuke answered without hesitation causing Keiko to blush.

Saru couldn't believe such a compassionate sentimant came from the boy's mouth as she blinked dumbly, while he continued talking, "So please!"

"No." Saru turned her head to the side stubbornly, eyes closed. This continued for about five minutes...

'How did I let them talk me into this...?' Saru thought as she stood against a tree by herself, as bait.

"Saru-chan, do _something_!" Yusuke whispered hoarsely from their hiding place.

_Like_ _what_? Saru projected her question intoall the Detectivesminds'.

"I know, sing someting!" Kuwabara whispered as Saru's eyes grew too large for a normal expression. The others agreed silently and eventually Saru gave in, and took a deep breath singing the first song that came to her mind...

**_Iwill wait until the end  
When the pendulum, does swing back to the darker side of our hearts bleeding  
AndI will save this space next to me  
Like its a grave whereI lay a place for us to sleep eternally together  
I have been searching for  
Traces of what we were  
Aghost of you  
Is all thatI have left  
Its all I have left of you to hold  
I wake in the night to find there's no one there but me  
And nothing left of what we were at all  
So here I am, pacing around this house again  
With pictures of us living on tese walls  
I see my breath in the cold of the air that I breath and I'm wondering  
I'm wondering if its you that I feel, if its you that I feel here haunting me forever  
I have been searching for  
Traces of what we were  
A ghost of you  
Is all that i have left  
Its all I have left of you to hold  
I wake in the night to find there's no one there but me  
And nothing left of what we were at all  
I'm not looking for anything but us  
Anything but what we were  
And I'm not asking for  
Paitned memories; I only want to know you're here  
I have been searching for  
Traces of what we were  
A ghost of you  
Is all that i have left  
Its all I have left of you to hold  
I wake in the night to find there's no one there but me  
And nothing left of what we were at all_**

'I hate singing for people..' Saru thought bitterly, 'Why did they make me sing anyway? Nothing's happ-'

Saru's thoughts were interrupted when a demon that resembled a man with shoulder length black hair and red eyes pinned her against a tree, ahand on her neck.

"My, my," Korou murmured, "You are very cute. Your soul will do, though it would be a shame to eat you considering you have that wonderful voice."

"Step away from her!" Yusuke's voice shouted as he and the rest of the Spirit Detectives emerged from their hiding spot.

Korou smirked, containing his amusementof the simple-minded humans, and proceeded to take Saru's soul by placing his lips on hers.

Saru's body turned ice cold starting with her lips, as her eyes glazed over, and Kuwabara charged at him with his Rei sword drawn.Korou didn't seem to be affected by the charging teen as his foot was tapping a simple beat on the ground, and roots sprouted from beneath the grass and tangled him up.

"What the hell is going on?" The orange-haired boy shouted trying to free himself from the roots, but to no avail. Yusuke tried his attempt to rescue Saru, but failed as a wall of thick roots blocked his Rei blast.

Korou had by this time forced his tongue inside Saru's mouth, moaninga simple melody, which caused Hiei and Kurama to fall to the ground clutching their ears in pain. Korou had pulled away from Saru licking his lips slightly, as she collapsed unconscious into his arms, "You boys are unlucky, because I'm taking this beauty with me. I hope you got to know her in the short time you had..."

"Oh no you don't, you bastard!" Yusuke said runned at the demon aiming to throw a punch.

"tsk, tsk, tsk." Korou shook his head carefully placing Saru down before turning and running at Yusuke. The slick-haired teen threw his punch, which was backed with his Rei, and aimed straight for Korou's face.

Korou easily caught his fist, having the following Rei burn his skin and shirt, as he leaned close to Yusuke's ear and quietly sang two words.

_**Suki**_ **_Ware_**

The demon released Yusuke's fist, knowing that the human was powerless to resist the spell he'd just cast. A simple cast that whomever hears it, will instantly fall in love with the caster, in this case: Korou.

"Don't leave me for that whore!" Yusuke whined under the influence of the spell, which caused Korou to laugh at how easily he was subdued.

"Now, now koi," Korou pretended using an honorific used between lovers, "I'll be back for you in due time.." He smirked when tears formed into the hypnotized teen's eyes as he walked over to the unconscious body of Saru Nishizawa, and picked her up bridal style and then walking off, disappearing from their sight.

"Yusuke!" Keiko screamed when she couldn't take waiting any longer and ran to the four boys, Botan following, "uhm... what happened here?"

"Where's Saru-chan!" Botan demanded, looking around frantically, "Where did Korou--uhm Yusuke, why are you crying?"

"Crying?" The teen questioned, having the spell wear off, "I'm not crying.." he felt his cheeks, "what the hell? Why am I crying!"

"Uh, that's what we asked you..." Botan retorted. Kurama and Hiei had by this time stood up and regained most of their composure, but their ears were ringing slightly. Kuwabara had been untangled from the roots and they retracted into the ground once again.

"Can you answer my questions?" Botan demanded of the slick-haired Spirit Detective.

"Saru got kidnapped, and her soul eaten." His voice was serious, and grave, but then his mood changed as he remembered, "And i have no idea why i was crying! One moment i'm about to punch korou's face in, and the next i'm crying!"

"A spell," Kurama thought out loud, "he could control different elements through variations of music and sound."

"Meaning what..." Keiko asked.

"Meaning he used a simple beat to control the roots that tied Kuwabara up and blocked Yusuke's shot, and then cast two spells through his voice."

Keiko and botan nodded apprehensively, but then Botan remembered, "but what happened to Saru-chan? Is she ...dead?"

"No, Korou just ate some of her soul," Kurama said, "I think he plans to keep her as well, so why would he keep a corpse?"

"Keep her for what?" Hiei asked, speaking for the first time.

"No clue," The red-head sighed shaking his head, "But we should probably report to Koenma..." A grave feeling swpet through everyone's mind as they exited the forest the same path, only with one less body, and a worry for her well-being growing steadily.

* * *

(A/N: Oki, end chappie three! see you in four! ttfn) 


	4. Trouble and Labcoats

(A/N: I'm back, hope you enjoy chappie four, oh, and do please try to ignore the little errors in spelling and crap, they're mostly spacing errors and missed capitalizations...enjoy regardless, please! thankies)

* * *

"She's been...?" Koenma asked in a daze after hearing the report from the mission. 

"That's right," Yusuke answered.

"We know Korou can manipulate music to control elements, and he can cast spells." The ruler stated.

The three, not including Hiei, Spirit Detectices nodded solemnly.

"And there's no clue as to where he's taken Saru-chan?" Koenma asked trying to get a hold of the situation.

"None at all." Kuwabara answered, being absolutely serious.

"No one can sense her? Nothing about her at all?"

All heads turned to Hiei, who had his eyes closed and was leaning against a wall. "Don't look at me, if I had a trace of anything we'd have found her by now," Hiei opened his eyes glaring at them all, before returning to having them closed.

"Well there goes that lead..." Koenma sighed and slumped into his big armchair, when there was a knock at the door, "This had better be important! Come in!"

Botan walked through the doors with a worried look on her face, "Koenma-sama, this just arrived. It's from Korou." The ferry woman solomnly handed the piece of paper to Koenma, who read the fancy writing...

_Dear Spirit Detectives and Company,_

_You poor fools, if only you'd have watched her more, but now you've lost her. Forever. I can tell she holds a place for all the Spirit Detectives, and every one she's met, that includes Koenma-sama, Botan-chan, and Keiko-chan. As you can guess her voice is beautiful, just like she it, and you'll never see her again, which is a shame for a certain Forbidden Child among you. For Saru-sama holds his locked and hidden memories, you could even say they're broken.Though having Saru-sama away from the likes of a fox theif is a good thing as well, if you don't believe me, you could always ask him yourself. It's not like you don't know where to find Kurama-kun._

_Sadly I have to part with you as opponents and consider Saru-sama my prize, I'm going to take her some place where she can think she's starting a new life with me in a country with no Spirit Detectives. Farewell Koenma-sama and others!_

_Korou, Music Master._

Koenma's eyes widened as he finished the letter, "Find her quickly! Korou says he's flying the country with her!" The Spirit Detectives fled the office, heading towards a portal that would take them to the airport.

"What's going on!" Keiko asked following the boys as they ran past.

"He's flying the country." Kurama answered, as he and Hiei sped ahead of the humans beating them to the airport.

"Great! This is one of the busiest times here!" Kuwabara complained, panting heavily, as he and the other two humans arrived. "How are we going to find her?"

"Start by looking!" Yusuke retorted, "Let's split up, if anything comes up signal each other." He then grabbed Keiko's hand and lead her towards one gate. The other's nodded, moving to their own gates, as Hiei jumped to the rafters after making sure no one saw him.

"Oh Korou, we're going on vacation? That's nice of you, you didn't have to!" Saru gushed, being under a charm, and had no clue who this man actually was. The man smiled and said something in response causing the girl to blush and look away, casting her eyes at the ceiling and to a particular short boy in black.

_A young Saru sat in a meadow minding her own business, enjoying the flowers as she then spotted something fall from the sky, and soon discovered that it was a young boy--about her age--falling. She transformed into a White Dragon and snatched him from death's race to the ground. _

_The boy pulled away from her gentle claws, and started to run in fear._

"Saru-chan?" Korou asked worriedly, "What's wrong?" He gently put an arm around her shoulder, as it looked like she might cry, but she shook her head, "Nothing, it's nothing Korou."

'_I found her,_' Hiei sent a message to the others' minds, telling them what gate she was at.

"So where are we going?" Saru asked shyly, yet with tease, and gave him a sly grin.

"Don't worry, you'll be safe with me-"

"We beg to differ Kurou." The music master turned to see the Spirit Detecives and Keiko standing there with glares on their faces, as Yusuke spoke again, "Get away from Saru."

"How... do ..you..know my name..?" Saru blinked confused, as she became worried; all these strangers knew her name, and more importantly she felt a pain in the back of her head when the boy in black gazed at her with red eyes.

_"I'm Hiei," The frightened boy said to Saru, who had changed back to her normal form. "I'm Saru! I've got two dragon sprirts in me from my parents!" She babbled happily, giving a heartwarming smile to Hiei. _

_"Hey! Hiei, will you be my friend?" She leaned close to his face with a wondering grin as he looked back at her with stunned eyes, stammering a 'yes'. _

_"Yay! We're going to be good friends Hiei! I just know it!" The young Saru then grabbed his hands and started making them spin around in a few circles, and in that time, Hiei smiled._

"Hiei-kun..." Saru murmured coming out of the memory, as Kurou cursed, quickly grabbing her hand heading to the gate. Too late, Kurama and Hiei had already blocked their path, and Kurou cursed again though thankful that not one of them would figure out how to break his charm on her.

'_I know now..._' Kurou's eyes widened in horror as he just received a telepathic method from Hiei, who glared at him dangerously.

Kurou gulped, but kept a tight grip on Saru, causing the girl to whine and protest. Kurou knew his situation well, he was wanted and been hunted by the Spirit Detectives for about 5 years now, and why now? Why did he slip this badly? Unless it was who he wanted... Saru Nishizawa. This girl is the only thing that's different from his other victims.

"Hand her over." Yusuke ordered, also glaring at Kurou, and finally lost his cool by lunging towards the offender. Kuwabara followed shortly after,wanting to take part of the heroics in saving her.

Kurou however, managed to easily avoid them without lifting a finger, no... he did lift a finger, he conducted the air, and humming was heard as the two teens were sent flying creating panic in the gate.

"Your punishment will be worse if you stir the humans," Yusuke warned in a surprisingly dangerous tone, yet he was aware that Kurou had power he could control without stirring said humans, and harnded his glare at the thought.

"Kurou, who are these people? What are they talking about?" Saru asked timidly, looking in worry at the four boys, while Kurou easily soothed her with a gentle note or two. Saru's eyelids closed, her eyes glazed over under the charm, and she slumped into Kurou's arms.

"Bastard! Let her go!" Yusuke shouted, angered by his actions, and charged mindlessly again.

"Simple-minded humans..." Kurou sneered as he sent Yusuke flying into benches, that had been cleared from scared and panicked by standers.

"Every one attack him at once!" Kurama instructed, and no one needed to tell Kuwabara twice, as said teen lunged at Kurou. Followed closely by Yusuke again and this time Kurama and Hiei.

'_Are you sure this will work?_'

'_Almost certain..._'

'_This is new for you Hiei-kun..._'

Kurama ended the mental connection as he dodged an attack from Kurou, who had placed Saru by his feet on the ground so that he could effectively fight off the Spirit Detectives. Punches, kicks, spirit attacks, plants, and music, was the rage as no one noticed until the last second when Hiei swept down, and lifted Saru away from Kurou.

"Damn you! Release her!" Kurou shouted, being distracted, and ended up getting a full hit from Yusuke's rei blast.

'_We'll hold him off, hurry Hiei-kun!_' Kurama hurriedly left the message in Hiei's head before returning his attention to Kurou and fighting. THe three kept Kurou distracted as Hiei gently placed Saru on the now empty benches, and carressed her face softly hoping Kurou hadn't lied about breaking the charm. For the sake of the mission only, Hiei leaned down and soflty touched his lips to hers, her soft lips. To a man as cold as Hiei, they felt warm, like the embrace of a mother, and in the lost memory Hiei closed his eyes savoring the precious time of memory.

"NO! DAMN YOU ALL!" Kurou shouted, when he caught on to what happened, leaving himself vulnerable to attacks. All this time, Saru had finally glowed breifly, a sign the charm had been broken, and her eyes fluttered open. "Ugh, my head..." She complained, though it was the throbbing that her own consciousness was taking control again that caused her pain, and she sat up slowly, "Where am I?"

"The airport, you nearly flew the country with a wanted demon." Hiei informed her, pretending that the kiss never happened, if she didn't know she didn't need to know.

"You mean that bastard put a charm on me!" Saru yelled in anger, grasping the concept and with the knowledge her mind is not as simple as most humans, and ignoring her aching head and body she walked towards Kurou.

'_Saru-chan..._' Hiei's incoherant thought spoke in his mind as he noted her anger, but just watch her walk away, and knew this was either going to be good or another disaster.

"Let me." The voice was definite and one anyone with commen sense wouldn't mess with, and the three remaining Spirit Detectives looked, nodded, and then cleared a path for Saru. "You liar." Saru narrowed her eyes at Kurou, "You worthless demon. You lied to a girl, and for that you must die." Saru closed her eyes before they shot open, pitch black in color and her body pulsed, and soon claws, a tail, wings, and scales covered her body.

"T-Tomoshibi..."

Fear struck the music master as he stepped back, eyes taking in the three-story white dragon before him, and bumped into the ticket taker boothe as he continued to back away.

Tomoshibi growled warningly, lowering her massive head to the demon, and calmly breathed as he confessed all his crimes in fear. However, that didn't stop Tomoshibi from snapping at his arm, and lifting him above the ground, his blood dripping on whatever lie beneath him.

"Saru, that's enough!"

Tomoshibi snarled at the speaker, bearing her fangs to all, and dropped Kurou to the ground now advancing on the speaker. Turns out said speaker was Yusuke, who was now backing away in a similar fashion as Kurou had done. Saru's mind was barely present as she helplessy watched behind a dragon's nature at Yusuke retreaing, and couldn't do anything until her anger had been sated.

"Tomoshibi-sama let Saru-chan have control again," Hiei spoke rashly as the dragon turned her head to watch him, "You'll fail the safety of this mission. And if that happens Spirirt World would be compromised, and you'll fail all of us."

'_Fail..._' Saru's mind froze, that word had only been painful to her, and in her state the dragon's nature turned now to react to her pain. Tomoshibi reared back, and jumped into the ceiling of the airport, beating her massive wings a few times before getting lift and disappeared from sight.

"Why did you have to say something like that?" Botan shouted at Hiei as she followed on her oar, as they chased after Saru, and of coarse he ignored her.

"Wait, she's over this way!" Kurama halted on a dime, and then turned to his right, noting she has been circling the area for some time wondering if her human mind is trying to fight the dragon's nature.

In the distance they heard loud snarling and sirens, followed quickly by shots, explosion and then silence. A loud impact was heard next, and then russling, then more silence. Botan flew high and gasped, "They've captured her!"

"She'll learn not to do reckless things this way," Hiei snorted, head turned but soon found himself sitting on the ground with his cheek throbbing and eyes wide, as he looked up into cold vibrant green ones.

"I didn't think you were that heartless Hiei." Poison was in the redhead's voice, and then looked to the others, "We'd better go inform Koenma..."

The five of them retreated to Koenma's castle in odd silence, and soon informed said toddler-bodied ruler. "Leave, I need to think." Came the order and they left Koenma to think.

Tomoshibi blinked her black eyes open, and tried stretching her aching stiff body, only to be held by restraints. She had only the choice of trying to calm her body in such an awkward position, but managed to find a way, and noted it was sometime near midnight. Saru's mind registered what sort of predicament she was in, and was thankful her human mind was in almost full control, but regreted her anger hadn't been dealt with. She exhaled deeply, causing some papers nearby to flap, and glanced at the window near the top of the large white room, though it was pitchblack her eyes easily adapted to the limited light, and could see sharp as ever.

A clanging and curse brought her attention, and barely managing to turn her head to see what caused the stir of silence, she saw a man picking up papers but missed one. He was about to walk out when Saru reached the dragon's tail to flick the paper out in the open, and she snorted to get his attention.

He wandered back to the paper Saru had flicked into the open, and put it with the others, then walked to the door as Saru gave a dragon sized sigh at the lack of acknowledgement.

"Did you...?" The man said, then huffed, "Thanks." He then disappeared from the room leaving Saru the only option of falling back asleep.

* * *

(Well there's chappie four. sooo sorry for the looong wait -;; I'll start on chappie five asap! ttfn)


	5. Rescue and Anew

(A/N: okay, chappie five! Enjoy this episode about Saru's encounter with the mysteries man... And if the rescue is successful! OOPS, I've blabbed too much! and again, please bear with me for the horrible spelling errors.)

* * *

Tomoshibi's rage was beginning to conquer Saru's mind as the human scientists conducted the most idiotic and primative experiments on her, which only degraded her further, and when she constantly snapped at the new experiments she would be electricuted. Leaving her only optoin of protest to be snarling, growling, and hissing at the humans. 

It was late in the afternoon when most of them had gone home until tomorrow, and Tomoshibi remained in control by heart but let Saru's mind become evident, as once again that man returned this time with others.

"Takano, I'm not sure... This theory of your's seems far-fetched," One of his comrads said, though Saru could note the mocking tone he had and narrowed his eye at him.

"Its true! That creature is capable of thinking and understanding!" Takano persisted, however he didn't get through the thick closed minds of science, and watched as his comrads' back walked through the door laughing. A tense silence soon fell on the room, and Saru lifted her massive head in a curious manner in the best way she could, she knew he was telling the truth but couldn't do anything for this man.

"You know... You know I'm not lying right?" Takano's voice cut the silence like a hot knife through butter, causing Saru to inhale sharply, and then return her head back in its resting place. He cautiously walked beside the enormous cage that contained Tomoshibi's body and sighed, "You shouldn't be in here. They can't understand you don't actually exist; dragons are, after all, fictional."

Saru blinked, and jerked her head to face him ignoring the strain of the binding chains. Her conscious mind was asking question after question as to how this human knew about such creatures, and in the midst of her wondering she hadn't noticed he was stroking the end of her nose gently.

Tomoshibi growled warningly, causing Saru's mind to become aware of the petting, and forced the dragon nature to subside as there was a comfort in his touch.

"I won't harm you," He spoke in a soothing voice and Saru felt a sense of peace and security come to her, which in the end soothed Tomoshibi and she fell into a deep sleep.

Hours later, Tomoshibi blinked its eyes open, and yawned noting it was near midnight, though knew she would not be able to fall asleep again. Tomoshibi retreated control of the mind letting Saru's mind have it.

"Awake?"

Saru jerked her head to the voice, seeing Takano standing there leaning against a counter, however this time there was no restraint on her neck. Quickly scanning the area, she saw the restraint on the floor near Takano's feet, and inhaled her question nodding slightly at the binding.

"Yes, I removed it." Takano answered with a gently smile, "Does it feel better?"

Saru nodded, exhaling her relief for freedom of movement, though one question still remained in her mind. '_Why?_' She tilted her head sideways, almost purring another question. At which Takano walked towards the cage siding, "I said it before, you don't belong in a place like this. And if you stay it will only be a matter of time before a disaster happens, I'm doing my best to free you, but somethings are beyond my ability to do. All I can do is wait with you until you are rescued."

Saru blinked, raising her head to his eye level, tilted her head to each side curiously. '_How?_' She blinked again at a noise in the distance, and looked beyond his right shoulder at the sound. They were footsteps, there were four of them, and talking that sounded like... Yusuke arguing with Kuwabara about which direction to go.

Hope fluttered in Saru's mind as the footsteps got closer, and soon barged through the door.

"Back away from the cage!" Yusuke barked at Takano, who smiled though only Saru could see. "I said move!"

"But you'll need my help to rescue her." Takano said simply turning around, showing his hands empty, "Otherwise you're recklessness will have the building destroyed."

"We'll be carefull!" Kuwabara protested, stepping forward onto a piece of paper, and ended up with his feet in the air. "Ow!"

Saru snorted at his behavior, and Takano smirked, "Like I said, you'll need my help."

"Then to start, how do we get Saru-chan out of that cage?" Kurama calmly asked, knowing they really had no choice, especially after Kuwabara's display.

"It has a combination keypad lock on that side, I don't know what it is, and unless someone can read minds then there's no hope." Takano explained, not aware of their abilities.

"Whose mind?" Hiei spoke up, wanting it to be over and done with as fast as possible.

"This man." Takano showed a picture of a balding man with glasses, a wrinkled face, and white labcoat. "Mr. Riley Smith, the man in charge at this facility, he should be home sleeping about now." He also told Hiei of his address.

"I'll go, and be back with the combination." Hiei spoke abruptly, before disappearing with his speed.

"And you three," Takano started, "Oh how should I put this... You'll have to find some way to take the restaints off Saru-san."

"What's the catch?" Yusuke asked, suspiciously glaring at Takano.

"Each restraint has a trip wire, I took the one off her head because I made it so I knew what the trip wire was." Takano explained, "Since each one is made by different people, the trip wires are all different, and one wrong move will not only hurt you but Saru-san as well."

Color drained from Yusuke's and Kuwabara's face, while Kurama remained calm yet he too was worried.

"There's no warning either," Takano comtinued, "If you get the wrong wire, it will either make a small explosion or electricute you and Saru-san. But before we get there, we have to wait for your comrade to get back with the combination."

They nodded in agreement, and fell into an awkward silence waiting for Hiei to return.  
-----  
Hiei made it to the address undetected, but there was someone awake, and noted it wasn't Riley Smith. He waited for the person to return to bed, but that didn't happen right away, and being the impatient demon he is, he landed on the roof silently. He easily located Riley within the building, and true enough, he was sleeping.

Searching the human mind while asleep was more difficult, because his subconscious was more powerful creating an obstacle for Hiei to look around. Finally Hiei reached the part of his thoughts regarding the research he'd been flown into Japan for, and soon acheived the information he was looking for. Hiei leapt off the roof, making double pace back to the lab building, and entered the way he did with the others.  
-----  
Saru's head rose with the sound of footsteps, and breathed out deeply getting everyone's attention. "Ah, He's back." Kurama said out loud, just as Hiei walked into the room. He nodded, and the other motioned to the keypad, to which he opened without mistake.

The door swung open with a lot of noise, the metal hinges being in dire need of some oil, and soon each Spirit Detecvie plus Takano was at a binding. Kurama informed Hiei about the bindings while the cage squeaked open, and each began to work away at the restraints. Hiei, Takano, and Yusuke managed to undo their binding without trouble, but that left Kurama and Kuwabra unsure of what to do, and pressure on their shoulders not to screw up.

Kurama had a backup plan in case, and he needed it, because he clipped the wrong wire. Three loud clicks were heard, and in that time Kurama activated the seed he had in his mouth (pulled from his hair before he started), as a ball of bamboo type leaves enclosed the binding's lock. A small explosion was heard, and after waiting for the smoke to drain from cracks in the ball, it disintergrated completely only leaving ash and a broken binding, which was now easy to remove.

Tension filled the air as Kuwabara was left to disarm the restraint, and soon the air was filled with howls of pain and the sound of electricity.

Saru's mind was forced out of control, Tomoshibi thrashing violently against the pain, and easily broke the binding. She backed out of the cage hissing in agony, soon escaping both the cage and the pain, and growled at Kuwabara warningly.

Takano immediately went to Tomoshibi, petting her snout soothingly, muttering calming things to her as the Spirit Detectives started in disbelief. The snarling subsided, and her eyes didn't seem as black of a black meaning that Saru's mind was once again in control. "Good..." Takano murmured when he was sure everyone was safe.

"WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?" Yusuke asked, distraught from the event he witnessed.

"Sorry, but I guess its hard to explain, I've been staying with her at nights just talking to her," Takano explained best he could, "and I guess it calms her somehow."

"Well we'll take her from here, thank you." Kurama said politely, "But I must ask, how did you get her in here in the first place?"

Takano smirked, walking over to a blank wall, and entered a code into another keypad. Loud machinery was heard as the wall split in two, opening like grand doors--almost similar to the doors that led to Koenma's office.

"Ah," Yusuke and Kurama murmured simultaniously, as they walked out guiding Saru along into the night. "Sorry about the mess Saru-chan made." Kurama said the apology when they left and Takano sighed, looking at the turned tables and paper scattered over the floor, as he went and started cleaning the mess.

Koenma paced on his desk impatiently when the four Spirit Detectives and a large white dragon walked through the doors, causing the ruler to stare in awe, "GREAT!" He sat in his chair promptly asking for details of the rescue.

"I'll have Botan-chan send a thank you to that man," Koenma murmured turning his focus on Saru, "Now then, Tomoshibi-sama, I'll let you go fly off and release your anger on the mountain out back. Please let Saru-chan be safe."

The dragon nodded, and blew a small fire ball at the desk, which disintergrated before an inch of the wood. When the others looked back to yell at her for such a reckless act, she was gone already, having flown out of a portal that led her to the mountain Koenma spoke of.

"YOU COULD HAVE AT LEAST SAID THANK YOU!" Kuwabara yelled after she was gone, hiding behind a plant.

"That was a thank you." Koenma stated calmly, "Now I believe you all have somewhere to be, I'll inform you of her return."

With that some nodded--one didn't--and they left the massive room to the ruler, the two humans returned back to their world and disfunctional families, while the fox in desguise returned to care for his mother. Hiei, who had nothing better to do, ended up on the same mountain as Tomoshibi watching from a distance.

Tomoshibi stopped scroching the trees when she noted she was being watched, and looked directly at Hiei, growling slightly as an acknowledgement of his presense.

Hiei huffed, smirked, and leaped from his spot to an unburned branch near the dragon's head. "You're not mad anymore."

Tomoshibi was about to scorch more trees, until Hiei spoke, and instead turned to look at him again with a slight growl.

"You're not mad anymore, so let Saru-chan out again, please Tomoshibi-sama."

Stunned, Tomoshibi looked bewildered at the fire demon near her head, and soon shrunk back into Saru Nishizawa.

"Good, now things can return to somewhat normal." Hiei mumbled, and jumped down, "W-What's with that expression? Why...?" His eyes grew slightly large when an unknown emotion ran through his chest, as he saw Saru crying.

"You ..said please...to ...get me back." Saru stammered smiling, overcome by happiness and the realization the Hiei she knew was somewhere inside that cold heart of his.

"Hn, so?"

Saru then looked at him with incredible sadness, throwing him off even more with unfelt feelings. "You don't remember, do you?"

"Remember what?" Hiei snapped, becoming annoyed a human girl would know something about him. "Tell me!" He shouted, panicking at the way Saru kept looking at him with a distantly hopeful look mixed with hurt. His own chest hurt at the expression on her face, and he wished it to stop, but he didn't know if he was capable of that.

"You're not ready to know yet..." Saru trailed off in thought as she gazed back at the castle, "I guess we should head back."

"Hn." Hiei huffed again, and turned towards the castle starting to walk without Saru, "Huh, what the? Let me go!"

She dragged him back to where he was standing before only now she was equal distance from the castle as he was, "Let's have a race Hiei-kun! You win, I'll tell you everything I know about you. I win, if I tell you or not is my choice, but you have to smile for me more often."

'_Was this girl crazy? A race, a foot race, with a demon? But... considering what's at stake..._'

"Fine, I accept." Hiei smirked, causing Saru to grin widely, and slowly his smirk turned into a small smile of mischief.

"GO!"

Both started running with high speed, and soon Hiei started pulling ahead smirking his arrogant smirk, gaining more lead from the human girl. Saru ran with all her human might, but still Hiei ran faster, and soon was out of her sights.

'_Please, Mother of life once lived, grant me speed for an old friend, and love always Kuro and Tomoshibi..._'

A tingling sensation washed over Saru's legs, her prayer answered, and ran with eyes closed focusing on the gift. Her eyes suddenly snapped open harnessing the full potential of a dragon's speed, and soon could see the outline of Hiei's black body running, closing the gap.

"How...?" Hiei murmured to himself as he could sense her approaching, '_She's only human._'

Now neck and neck again, they sprinted through the doors into Koenma's office panting heavily, stirring said ruler from his paper work.

"I...I win Hiei-k-kun..."

"Damn it." Hiei scoffed, and then became sulky as the rest of the Spirit Detectives walked in.

"Ah, good you're all here. I have a mission for you."

* * *

(a/n: yes true. I leave you now, next chappie will be up as soon as possible. till then my silleh mortals! poof) 


	6. Demons and Humans and Games!

(A/n: Yay i'm back with chappie six, and am pleased with reviews and demands for updates. it makes me feel happy! \claps excitedly/ anywho enough of my babble, and again do please make sense of my pathetic little spelling and gramatical errors. -;; Thankies, now then chappie six!)

* * *

"What are we doing here?" Saru grumbled as her and Keiko and the four Spirit Detectives walked into an executive hotel suit on a remote isolated island, she then landed on one bed face down sighing deeply with aggravation at Koenma's dumb little mission. 

"Because this is for the good of your world." Hiei answered, he's been talking more to her and ...half smiling since he lost the race. His word as a demon was at stake if he didn't, and he admitted she won, though even if no one knows it. He seems to be finding something aluring about this Saru ever since that race a week ago.

"I know that!" Saru snapped into the blankets, "And I understand that at least one female needs to be on the team of five, but why is Keiko-chan here?" Saru sat up at this question looking directly at Yusuke, who twitched nervously under her gaze.

No one answered her, and Keiko even seemed confused by the question; Saru sighed in defeat. Koenma probably had a good reason for allowing Keiko to come instead of Botan, but no one ever really understood that todler. ...

_  
"I've been informed of a power source that can break the barrier between the human world and demon worlds, right now it resigns it's power in the form of a grand prize." Koenma paused, letting the information sink, and partly for dramatic affect. "The prize for a tournament of demons, humans, and the likeness. The sponsor of this tournament is who we suspect as the main villan behind the idea of breaking that barrier, and he's going to use the strength of the champion to do so."_

_"Our job is to win and stop him?" Yusuke asked, sounding like he was listening to a broken record._

_"Yes, precisely." Koenma replied, sounding a little agitated for being interupted, "This time however, there must be at least one female on the team by order of the sponsor. After carefully inspecting all the woman we have at out disposal, I've come to the desicion of Saru-chan to be on the team, and now then let me explain." Koenma said quickly to avoid repeating himself and interuption, "She's capable of getting angry quick and that's her strength, also in this tournament it's also a chance for her to redeem that anger. I'd like to speak with her after in private after the briefing then, and i'm going to allow you bring Keiko-chan along." _

_Yusuke began to argue against this decision, but Koenma shut him up and dismissed them all, leaving the ruler and Saru. _

_"What did you want to talk to me about?" Saru asked nervously, starting to fidgit from agitation as well. _

_"Don't let Hiei-kun remember anything during this tournament. I warn you, if you do I'll punish you for that Saru-chan." Koenma said strictlty, glaring at her slightly, "And furthermore-" _

_"THAT'S MY DECISION TO TELL HIM OR NOT!" Saru snapped out, slamming her hands on the ruler's desk, "I made a bet with him, and I won, now it's my choice. Koenma-sama, with all due respect, that's not something you can command me to do." After that outburst she left, and Botan wandered in getting the final information about the tournament.  
_

'_Great, now I remember..._' Saru thought irritated and sighed into the blankets once more. Oh, how she couldn't wait for tomorrow at the orientation, where all the teams gathered and they could scope out their competition without much suspicion.

"Okay, who's hungry!?" Kurama's pleasant voice ran through her bitterness, and she lifted her head to see said redhead in the kitchen with Keiko, the human boys gathered around, and last but not least; Hiei sitting near a window.  
-----

"This will give the teams a chance to mingle and scope the opponents. 'Keep your friends close, and your emenies closer'... keep that in mind as the tournament progresses and eliminations are made. There will be a lunch offered to you all, and I encourage you to talk to my officers if you have any questions regarding rules." A middle-aged man with black hair, glasses over his brown eyes, and clad in business suit announced.

Saru kept a good lock on him, though felt she was being watched, and as her eyes wandered to a girl that looked a little older than herself, she knew she was being watched.

"My daughter Jess will be lingering on and off the tournament grounds, feel free to talk to her." The sponsor annouced, and Jess stepped forward, giving a small speech her eyes locked onto Saru with an intensity that made the dragon's stir inside her.

Saru gulped when her father started talking again, as the single thought she heard from Jess' mind ran clear as a bell in her mind. Something wasn't right with the tournament sponsor and Koenma's accusation.

An hour has passed, and Kurama did most of the talking with the other teams; Yusuke and Kuwabara tried, but almost got themselves killed. Hiei refused to talk, and Saru did the same it made her uncomfortable with the way some of them stared at her.

"You five must be Team Urameshi?" Jess, the sponsor's daughter said approaching said team, "Interesting array of members..." She mumbled to herself referring to the three humans and two demons, and Saru glared hearing the thoughts loud and clear in her own head.

"Well I hope you the best in this tournament!" Jess said cheerfully before giving a look to Saru and walking away. Saru stood there, frozen like a rock, and now at the back of Hiei's head, because he now stood between Saru and where Jess was.

Saru finally managed to get her composure under control, and reassured those who asked that she was fine, however the non-humans knew better.

"**Please Gather to the main staduim. All teams please gather to the main stadium.**" A voice that sounded like an announcement, but it was just a device that enhanced the speaker's voice, "**Spectators may watch from the stands. All teams to the main Stadium floor.**"

Many murmurs were heard by Saru, and she wondered as well what this was about, she stood in a circle with her four teammates that had been marked off by their team name noting the other teams were in the same fashion. The questions only grew more when balls about the size of medium sized soccerballs emerged from the ground--five in each circle.

"**This is a little game that will entitle a little competition right away, but nothing too serious, and do anything within your power to win!**" The sponsor's voice heard over the questions, and all teams looked up at him like he was an idiot.

"**DUH! It's dodgeball!**" Jess spoke up when no one understood her father, "**NOW GO!**"

Still, the teams stood there looking dumbfounded until Yusuke and Kuwabara cheered and threw a ball at another team hitting two different people, and when they were hit a hole opened below them and they fell threw the ground.

"**Riley! Daisuke! OUT!**"

That seemed to wake everyone up, and soon there were balls flying and people, and demons falling through the ground, which continued for about thirty minutes or so.

"**This seems to be it folks, its down to three teams; Team Urameshi, Team Kiyozumi, and Team Nadaru.**" Jess said as it seemed everyone left assesed the situation, "**Team Urameshi lost Kurama-kun half way through the even, but are staying strong. Team Kiyozumi lost Ashley and Mike at the same time, while Team Nadaru is still at full five people strength.**"

"Damn... We could use Kurama right now..." Yusuke grumbled, as he was trying to catch his breath, in all his life Dodgeball had never been this intense before--even if it was just for fun.

"**Seems now that the teams are focusing on strategy rather than instinct, there are less targets and less objects to dodge, intellect plays a key component to the success of the game.**" Jess commentated as a few members from the three left indeed started discussing.

"Intellect? Yusuke should be out by default then," Hiei murmured causing Saru to giggle as she was standing near enough to hear him, and only proved his theory further when Yusuke let out an agitated groan and threw a ball at one of the other teams, who dodged and threw three back as well as the other team.

"IDIOT!" Saru yelled at the gell head with a spirit gun, as she tried and managed to dodge many of the red balls thrown in her direction, and when it was safe, she noticed Kuwabara is no longer 'alive'.

"**Kuwabara out!**"

'_Thanks captain obvious..._' Saru thought sarcastically, as the throwing of balls began again, and again there's no order or tactic. '_This is rediculous, those demons looked like they didn't know what dodgeball was, and here they are, owning our asses. And it seems my little plot to make them think I'm not that strong isn't working... damn I have to put a greater influence on them._'

"Block them for me, I need to concentrate," Saru told Yusuke, "Please, if I succeed we may win."

No one need to tell the Spirit Detective twice as he stepped in front of Saru and deflected any on-coming balls with one he held in his own hands, and waited for what Saru said would happen.

'_Hiei-kun? Please just listen, search Team Naradu's minds, and find anything that would turn them against each other. I'll search the other team, why? Because, winning in the barbaric game seems what Yusuke wants, and I just want him to shut up; so if the other teams start bitching and back stab their own members, Yusuke can have his victory._' Saru mentally told Hiei, as she concentrated further on the remaining team members of Kiyozumi.

Well, whatever the human girl was planning worked, as slowly but surely the players of both opposing teams began to block less for each other, and in the end Team Urameshi was victorious.

"**With an unbelievable stroke of luck, Team Urameshi pulled off a victory! Though they win no prize, this was just for fun!**" Jess cheered over the speaker system, and began to talk about the schedule for tomorrow's matches, and the events going on during the time if people wish not to watch.

"What did you do Saru-chan?" Kurama asked, walking beside her making sure she could only hear the question, as the six walked to their hotel room. "I'm guessing it had to be you, and maybe Hiei..."

"Have you ever thought of being a teacher? You'd be everyone's nightmare..." Saru grumbled, annoyed the redhead could read her so easily, "Yeah...I did something. I made the other teams lose trust in each other, and I made Hiei-kun help me."

"Another thing, he seems different around you... I mean that many have tried breaking his barrier, but you seemed to get him to lower it himself," Kurama rambled about his little demonic friend, and then gave her a suspicious glance, "How did you do it?"

Saru froze, getting a horrible image of the consequences and the wrath of the Forbidden Child, "You'd probably have to ask him!" She grinned at the fox-in-desguise, and ran up to talk to Keiko, avoiding the confrontation for now...

The redhead sighed, and kept quiet until they reached the hotel, when the two teens insisted on a Kurama cooked meal. Without any arguements, said fox started cooking, as Saru went into the seperate room she shared with the other female human to shower.

'_Did you tell him?_'

Saru gasped and relfexively tried to cover herself when she heard Hiei's voice in her head, panting from panic.

'_I'm not anywhere near you Saru-chan... relax, okay? Now tell me, what did Kurama ask about?_'

Saru sighed relief, and casually returned to rinsing the shampoo out of her hair, '_He noted you seem to be different from what he knows of you, especially when you're around me. I didn't tell him anything, even though he tried to dig the truth out. I also mentioned he should ask you, but you won't say anything either, if I know you..._'

'_Hn... Well, you better hurry up or the nitwits will eat your share of the food._' Hiei replied in her head, and momentarily stopped their mental connection as he moved himself from the window to the table grabbing a bowl of food.

Saru sighed, finishing her shower, and walked out in the main area to find lots of food left. The silly fire demon probably exaggerated to get her out, so she'd have a decent pick of the food, and the thought of him actually caring about her made her smile a little.

"So, according to the schedule being sent out some time tonight, we are fighting three times tomorrow. Twice is a round robin match, and the third isn't really fighting, but a test." Kurama explained once every one was quiet enough to listen.

"Tests? Lame... I mean, in a fighting tournament? Even if the winners are going to be used for diabolical schemes, why tests!?" Yususke pointed, answering his own question.

"Wouldn't that be the point of the tests then? That the person behind this doesn't want idiots to help him take over the human world," Hiei retorted with a snort.

"Lighten up Hiei-kun," Saru said in an annoyed tone, and much to Kurama's surprise, Hiei just rolled his eyes and refrained from speaking for the rest of dinner. "My thought, is the test is going to test us. As a team, and as individuals on a team, meaning: trust. In our abilities and our teammates, and knowing this kind of tournament, it could be anything."

"Do you know who you're fighting first tomorrow?" Keiko asked, when she had a chance to speak up over theories.

"One of the first few teams that lost the dodge ball match. We fight the second place team from that tomorrow afternoon, which was the Kiyozumi people." Saru answered, "And I know this because I read one of the cooridinator's mind."

"Yeah, they were pretty strong to survive until second!" Kuwabara boasted, finishing his meal, and turned to Yusuke, "This is going to be wicked! We get to show off!"

Yusuke said something in agreement causing Hiei to close his eyes in annoyance, and Saru to roll hers 'Oh brother...'

"Say Saru-chan... We know that you can turn into a dragon, but is that the only thing you can do?" Yusuke asked, causing Saru to give him a warning glare.

"Yeah... And it seemed like a pretty weak dragon too, to be caught by humans." Kuwabara added, putting more fuel in the fire. He kept talking, which was making Yusuke chuckle as he added little witty comments.

"Would your parents be proud of you? I'd imagine they'd be ashamed, and hide fr-" Kuwabara's comment was cut off as Keiko's hand covered his mouth, and when he went to move it and bark at Keiko, he caught a glimpse of Saru's face. "Empfh!" Kuwabara squeaked, making Yusuke laugh until he too saw her expression, and you could almost hear their blood freeze over.

"Thank you for dinner Kurama-kun, it was delicious." Saru stood up, her voice thick with promise of pain, as she put her plate in the sink to soak. "I'm going to bed to prepare for tomorrow, and don't worry about disturbing me Keiko-chan, I'll be out like a light. Oyasoumi." With that, Saru retreated into her room and slammed the door causing everyone to cringe, and after a moment everyone resumed breathing.

"Should we say sorry to her?" Yusuke asked after a painful thirty seconds once everyone started moving again.

"Your funeral." Hiei said with a scoff, and walked to his usual window spot.

"That was reckless and stupid I had no idea you could be so insensetive!" Keiko yelled, smacking Kuwabra and Yusuke up side the head, and continued to beat them in retribution for Saru.

Inside the secluded room, Saru stared at the ceiling in thought, more like watching a memory she locks away only for emergencies. After viewing the memory for the third time, Saru smiled, and then changed for bed like she said she would, finally crying herself to sleep. An hour and a half later, Keiko walked in the room, and noted the sleeping girl, then carefully changed and climbed into the bed beside her. Keiko fell asleep as well after giving a huge sigh.  
------

Keiko woke in the morning and sat up, and blinked in surprise seeing Saru at the end of the bed dressed in an outfit she could easily fight in. "G-Good morning Saru-chan..."

"Morning Keiko-chan!" Saru smiled, "You should hurry up before the two idiots eat your share of Kurama's breakfast." She stood and spoke again, "and don't worry about Yusuke-kun and Kuwa-chan... I knew they were idiots, and I shouldn't have let what they said bother me, I just over-reacted."

Keiko watched as Saru left the room, and couldn't but wonder how she knew what to say like that. She recalled what she had said to Saru the night before, but thought Saru was asleep.

_"Saru-chan? I'm sorry for those two..." Keiko started, in a whisper, though she wanted her words to reach the other. "Don't pay anything that say any mind, it would encourage them... I'm sorry." _

_The sleeping girl turned in her sleep so her back was facing Keiki, and she smiled a little._

'_She said she'd be out like a light? _Did_ she hear me?_' Keiko thought, as she changed and walking into the main area where Yusuke and Kuwabara were scarfing down what they could grab.

"Who are we fighting first? Does anyone know?" Yusuke asked, after forcing the half-chewed breakfast down his throat.

"Team Viper, I believe they're called that." Saru answered, and in strangely perky mood despite her agression last night.

"What kind of people do they have?" Kuwabara asked, "Wait, how do you know?"

"I read one of the co-ordinators minds." Saru answered a little smugly, giving the two teens a smirk.

"Did you find out what kind of fight it will be, Saru-chan?" Kurama asked, in his ever pleasantly calm voice, to which Saru shook her head 'no'.

Hiei huffed slightly, only receiving Saru to stick her tongue out at him childishly, and returned her attention back to the others.

"AAAW, man!!!" Yusuke whined, "Why do we have to walk! Can't they charter a limo--they do know who we are, right?"

"I think a limo would be a bigger give-away," Keiko pointed out, "Besides walking is good preperation to fight!"

"No training would be, and we could have if Saru-chan had woken up earlier." Kuwabara complained, giving the dragon girl a small glare.

"But Kuwa-chan!" Saru pouted, "Training would make you more tired before you fight, as walking is just enough!"

Yusuke was laughing rediculously loud at the tallest male being called '-chan', and even Kurama was politely chuckling to himself, while they walked on Kuwabara and Saru in a match of wits. ... Which ended soon enough with Saru as victor, as the team walked into the stadium and their dressing room, and Keiko went to find a place in the audience to watch.

"**Will teams Urameshi and Viper please step to the battle stage for the first match. Teams Urameshi and Viper to battle Stage.**" An annoucnment rang in each dressing room, and the ten people emerged into the stadium arena.

Many 'boo's were given to the Spirit Detectives, while the Viper team had gotten praise from the audience, and in the midst of everything Saru could pick out Keiko.

"Oh yeah, much love for the humans here... I feel so at home..." Saru said bitterly, glaring at the cheering audience, and team Viper.

"Don't let them get to you, Saru-chan..."Kurama whispered to her, seeing her reaction to reading Viper's minds.

"It's not that Kurama-kun...okay it is, honestly! Can't they take a competition seriously, especially since they don't know what we humans' are capable of?" Saru retorted, "By that I mean mostly you and me."

"Why me, Saru-chan?" Kurama asked bewildered she mentioned him.

"Because, how many of these demons present know you're a fox theif?" Saru smirked as Kurama nodded in agreement, just in time to have Jess make more announcements about the match.

"**All right Teams, here are your match stats! It will be two on two, first blood--which means that if both memebers from one team have been cut, the team loses the match--thus leaving one team member not to fight! I'll give you ten minutes to decide your fighters.**"

"I'll sit this round."

"EEH!?" Came a unanimous sound of disbelief from Yusuke, Kuwabara, Saru, and even Kurama when Hiei said he'd sit the round.

"It would be wrong to make Yusuke or Kuwabara sit, and I know Kurama would liked some fun first thing in the morning, so I thought I'd let Saru fight with him because she does not know how he fights. I, on the other hand, have fought along side Kurama many times, and the two human's would fight together because it is what they do." Hiei explained quickly, with his eyes closed, being the calm and collection demon he was.

Calm and collected, only until Saru hugged him saying 'thank you' and then went to signal Jess that they were ready.

"**Now then! Would the first fighters step into the arena for the first match?**" Jess said over the announcement, and Yusuke and Kuwabara did just that, along with a wind demon and fire demon.

'_Who the hell does she think she is...? She hugged me, of all people!...Heh, baka onna..._" Hiei thought in a slight panic and then calmed himself as he closed his eyes and leaned against a wall where he could easily still see the match, not acknowledging the fact he had indeed blushed--even if just a little.

Kurama focused his attention to the match as well, with a small knowing smile, having watched his friend react to such an action from the female dragon. He watched as Kuwabara and Yusuke were battling with their Rei weapons, blocking and attacking equally with the two demons from the opposing team, and though his eyes landed on Saru, he felt a strange desire from something that should no longer exist in him.

"**Looks like both are evenly matched--NO! I spoke too soon! Kuwabara has landed a sratch on Yuuri's leg, if Yusuke or Kuwabara can land a hit on Kyou then the match is theirs!**" Indeed the not-so-redhaid managed to slice a wound into Yuuri the wind demon's leg.

The match progressed slowly, both teams not willing to make stupid moves so suddenly, and Jess kept her vigilant commentary up so as the audience didn't get bored.

"**Things are one-one now, as Kyou managed to graze the skin of Yusuke's shoulder! This is becoming intense an intense first match! Leave it to the humans to set a bar standard of fights! Yet...both teams are just looking at each and panting...looks like I was wrong...**"

"SCREW THIS!" Yusuke yelled, loading his Rei gun for another blast, and sent the huge ball of energy at the two demons. In the blink of an eye, Kyou had summoned a fire ball the same size and fired back, but the heat mixed with Spirit Energy caused a huge explosion engulfing all four fighters in smoke.

Screams were heard from the smoke, and it was known that someone had been cut, but the question is who...

"**This is it folks! After a final blow from both teams our victor is...**"

* * *

(A/N: yeah, yeah i know, i owe you an apology. I'm really sorry this chapter took so long to post... i had it at one point, then forgot to save and when i checked again, it was gone... but i kinda like the revised version better. anywho, i'll start asap on the next chappie when we see who won between Yusuke, Kuwabara, Kyou, and Yuuri! And see how Saru will fight! ttfn! and sorry again silleh mortals) 


	7. Into The Forest I

(a/n: here is the next chappie, hope it wont take as long!er...one more thing... i've had someone say my telepathy remarks and conversations haven't been obvious..so that talk is still going to be _Italic _when talking to each other, but it's also going to be in these \back slashes\...i hope that helps, and then thinking amongst the character to his/her self will just be _Italic_ in 'single quotations'...gomen nasai!!)

* * *

Coughing was heard as the smoke finally settled, and the ones coughing were the two humans and the conscious demon Yuuri, as Kyou lay on the ground with a deep flesh wound on his shoulder. 

"**Team Urameshi is victorious!**" Jess called over the system, as his teammates carried Kyou off the arena floor. "**Next fighters please step up to battle, the same rules apply for the first match.**"

Two more male demons from the other team stepped up, one an elemental, and the other a neko, as Kurama and Saru entered as well.

"Oooh, I call the human girl!" The neko purred.

"Aaaw no fair Shunsuke, I wanted the easy opponent..." The elemental mocked, "Well good luck to you... And to you." He glared at Kurama, before summoning a blade of ice.

"You too Keita." Shunsuke smirked, blinking as Saru wasn't phazed by his talks, but smirked as well growing his claws long.

'_Hahaoya...Please, grant me your strength for this battle._'

"**BEGIN**!"

'_Just enough to draw first blood._' Saru prayed, and her wish was granted, she could feel the power surge through her steadily as it hurt when claws grew from the tips of her fingers; a thin scaled white tail forced itself out from her tailbone, and massive white membraneous wings sprouted from her back. Her clothes torn when the transformation was complete, Saru hunched over slightly due to the morphed feet she stood on, though the horns that shot out behind her ears helped her balance.

Her eyes finally opened, from being clentched with pain, and black slit pupils surrounded by cold baby blue starred at the neko. Saru roared warningly, showing off her suddenly unreasonably sharp fangs, glancing at Kurama quickly before leaping at Shunsuke.

\_Ready when you are Kurama-kun._\ Was the message left by the dragon, and the redhead didn't need to be told twice as he swiftly pulled his rose whip from his hair, blocking an attack from Keita.

"**This has taken a strong turn of events! Saru, of Team Urameshi, has taken on a transformation... It seems--that I've just been informed--She has rare blood in her...And we are witnessing first-hand what this will do.**" Jess spoke, as the fight progressed.

Shunsuke had dodged her attack, countering with a slash of his own claws; but Saru beat her wings slightly gaining lift and flew over his head evading more attacks as she slashed her tail at the neko.

"Close... But not good enough!" Shunsuke laughed, running around her in circles extremely fast, thinking he had the advantage. However, with Saru's enhanced eyesight she tackled the neko to the ground, pinning his limbs down with little effort. "How...?" Was all the neko could get out asked before Saru slashed her tail across his torso under her own arms, ignoring the blood that splashed on her face.

"**Saru has drawn first blood, it comes down to Kurama and Keita now...**"

Saru let the neko stand, who huffed trying to get a strike back at her, but ended up unconsious when Saru's wing threw him to the ground. Her dragonic eyes fell to the redhead and the elemental, who seemed to be evenly matched, though Saru knew better. This was a match to simply draw first blood, not kill them, and most of Kurama's seeds focused on a powerful enough attack that would ensure death to it's opponent. She smirked when she caught onto what the redhead was trying to do.

Kurama had scattered seeds all over the floor of the arena, growing a couple at a time, seconds after one another, hoping to cause a diversion to Keita. However, the elemental was able to stop each one; freezing, burning, crushing, or blowing them away.

Saru watched on as the two fought; this was going nowhere fast, and it was starting to draw audience protesting and yells of disatisfaction. Slowly Saru smirked, no one knew of her mental capabilities, and this would be an excellent time to test if other teams could figure out just how much power she had. Slowly, barely noticable, Saru started by reading Kurama's mind to know which seed he'd grow next, and then planted an illusion of the plant already growing in Keita's mind mere seconds before they actually growed.

On the sidelines, a fire demon was losing his patience, not only with the fight, but with a dragon. He didn't like the way Saru interfered with Kurama's fight, though he had admitted it was clever, and nothing else.

"**Almost! Keita had amanaged to dodge another plant from Kurama, but they seem to be just missing. What's this? Keita is dodging next to nothing? What is going on inside his head?**" Jess commented as the fight progressed, and Saru was gradually increasing the time difference when her images of the plants growing would and the actual plants themselves.

Keita had set up a defence around his body, effeciently blocking potential attacks as this strange phenomenon was, and encircled his body with fire that would burn anything that came close. The elemental panicked as to why this was getting dangerous, and went with his gut instinct of defense.

Saru glared, knowing she couldn't interfere now without revealing her true potential, this was all up to Kurama now. The redhead was scattering more seeds, and dodging attacks sent from Keita, Saru once again read Kurama's mind and wished him luck with his plan as she became airborne as Keita was evading in her direction.

It was now or never, the audience was getting restless, and Kurama finally made all seeds grow hoping it would be enough of a distraction. The fox was right, and as Keita had managed to dodge every plant but he couldn't be in time to dodge Kurama's rose whip, which went through his calf muscle.

"**We have winners! Team Urameshi again, neither Saru or Kurama have been hit, while their opponents leave the arena.**" Jess called after the match was over, "**We will be taking a short 30 minute break to set the floor again. Next teams are Team Masoshi and Team ...Cool! Those two teams be ready to fight next, same match as before: 2x2 first blood.**"

The Spirit Detectives had met up with Keiko after the match, and they walked back to the hotel immersed in conversation, Yusuke trying to get Keiko to admire him when she was ignoring him and gawking at Saru instead.

"Hn, women." The dejected teen huffed, making his boasterous friend laugh and give a comment, to which Yusuke chased him to the hotel demanding a fight or apology. But when it comes to Yusuke and Kuwabara... It's not going to be the latter.

"That was an awesome first match! Now the rest of the participants know not to mess with you guys!" Keiko grinned, slowly and not-as-sublty-as-she-thinks moving Saru to the door, "And now it's time for girl talk!" She cheered, dragging Saru out of the hotel with her, and back to the hotel. Eventually the two girls made it back to the stadium, when Saru pointed out she was still in torn clothes, and Keiko said that this was more important.

-----------------the hotel--------

"Don't look at me," Yusuke said, helping himself to anything edible in the fridge, "She may be my on and off girlfriend, but I can't control her." To which Kuwabra started a petty argument, neither noticing that Hiei had snuck out a window to follow them...Just in case trouble happens, or so he kept telling himself.

---------girls----------

"OOH! Did you see that brutal hit?" Keiko said, nudging Saru in the arm, as they watched from the same place Keiko was in their match.

"I thought this was about girl talk Keiko-chan..." Saru sighed dejectedly, not into the demons below fighting each other, "Besides, wouldn't you rather be congradulating Yuu-chan on his victory?"

"I'll do that later, Yuu-chan would be happy either way," Keiko sighed, picking up the nickname from her dragonic friend, "Though I'm more concerned about you and Hie-"

"Why are you concerned?" Saru asked quickly, not liking where this subject is going, and got up to leave only to receive Keiko latch to her arm. "Let go!"

"Never! If you don't tell me now, I'll ask in front of EVERYONE, including Hiei!" Keiko threatened, and smirked when she saw the sudden fear in Saru's face. "He's probably already here anyway..." Saru mumbled, though Keiko didn't seem to notice, but Saru stayed anyway.

However, said fire demon fled when he knew Saru knew he was there, not bothering to check if it was just a guess...

"Let's get this over with... What are you concerned about, between Hiei-kun and I?" Saru sighed, might as well endure this interrogation now rather than later.

"I may act like a ditz and hyper, but I'm not blind... I've seen some of the glances you give him, why? Do you know something about him no one else does?" Keiko asked, watching the match with a different persona this time, and Saru knew Keiko wouldn't take 'no' for an answer.

Saru sighed defeated, "You cannot repeat this to anyone, all right? When I was young, I saved him from the time he was thrown off the city, and I managed to be his friend... It hurts me to see him so cold now, I loved his smile...I remember when we played in the forest behind my parent's mansion, and I remember when he was taken..." By this point Saru lost her composure, and she broke down crying, which Keiko escorted her out of the stadium to a nearby pastry shop.

When Saru had calmed down, and eaten some of the free-to-competitors cake Keiko ordered, she gave a weak smile and a thank you. "You're very welcome, but now you can listen to my story... You probably know how Yuu-chan became a Spirit Detective, right?" Saru nodded slightly, having heard the really short version from Botan in her short visits to Koenma. "Well, when I found out, I cried... Despite Yuu-chan being impulsive and a slight pervert, I'd miss him dearly, I had a horribly deep crush on him. I'm not sure exactly how much time passed until I saw him alive and well, it felt like he died one day and the next was alive, but he was acting like nothing had ever happened. I was so relieved, and moved on I thought I'd give him a chance, so since then he's been slowly working his way in my heart."

Saru snorted with a slight sarcasm, "That's a pretty pathetic story Keiko-chan... I find it hard to believe Yuu-chan would die that easily." She chuckled a little coldly, which Keiko smacked her for, and then they both laughed. Keiko had accomplished her mission.

------hotel---------

It was only fifteen minutes after Hiei had snuck out, then did he return, and again only Kurama noticed. "You came back after hearing nothing?" The red head teased, and Hiei huffed, dismissing him before sitting on the window seat glaring outside. "Well they better be home soon, or their share will go to Yusuke and Kuwabara..."

It was an hour and a half later that Saru and Keiko returned to the hotel, laughing and chatting, and none of the boys would ever know of the emotion spilled earlier. Saru had disappeared to change into another battling outfit, and Keiko salvaged them some food, telling the boys that their next battle was in the evening.

"Well, it's time, shall we head off?" Kurama asked in his ever pleasant manner, half an hour after fixing a small dinner before their next match, and soon everyone was walking to the stadium again.

During their walk to the stadium, Saru had focusing her mind into this battle, asking many typical questions, and walked into another contestant. He was a tall blonde, slim body, in a trench coat, and paler-than-normal skin. He helped her up with a gentle smile, and an apology, which to much surprise started a conversation between them and they walked to the Stadium.

"Jake?! THERE YOU ARE!" A loud bousturous shout came from their left, and there stood another tall blonde, with a built body as he and three others walked up. "You're late, and--huh? Picking up chicks at a time like this? I'm shocked, and whoa! She's pretty! Name's Rick, cutie, and it's a pleasure to be in your presence." Rick said arrogantly with a stupid grin.

Saru chuckled, "The pleasure is mine Rick, but please call me Saru." At this point Jake had rolled his eyes and joined his other teammates, and yet another walked up.

The second wasn't as tall, and had brown hair instead of blonde, which was sort of long and styled so the bangs fell into his eyes elegantly and his eyes were a mysterious icey blue. "Now, now Rick, don't go scaring the pretty lady. My name is Greg, pleased to meet such a gorgeous opponent." Greg said with a cool tone of voice, and took Saru's right hand, placing a kiss on the back, which left a cool tingling sensation.

"Likewise with you Greg, however I'll have to meet the rest of your team on the battle field," Saru smiled, took her hand back, and turned to catch up with her friends. "Good Luck!" She waved back at Greg, before being engaged in conversation with Keiko.

"Your plan Greg?" Riley, short black hair, and short in height asked to the team leader.

"Yes, she'll have to do." With a smirk he turned, and they walked to their hotel.

-----------Stadium locker room----------

"For the last time! I'm okay, he didn't do anything, and if you're wondering about the Jake person; NO!" Saru sighed in exasperation, having had to explain that NOTHING was going on or going to happen with that team.

"**COULD BOTH URAMESHI AND KIYOKI TEAMS REPORT TO THE ARENA. TEAMS URAMESHI AND KIYOKI TO THE ARENA.**"

"Well let's get this over with!" Yusuke sighed as the five--minus Keiko who went to find a spot to watch from--headed to the battle arena as before. Only...this time, there was a massive garden/forest scenery.

"Everybody as confused as I am?" Saru asked out loud, and got a few replies from the other humans, nothing from Hiei (like you were expecting a response from him? c'mon!)

"**Welcome to the next match! Jess here, and here is also a brief explanation of this event.**" She spoke over the crowd due to a microphone, and continued, "**We sponsors aren't crazy, there is a reason to the thick forest in front of these two teams.**" She signalled to an official on the sidelines and he took a blanket off a cage revealing an exotic and half mutated bird, which he then took inside the heart of the forest. "**This cute animal has been specially modified for this event, she will not leave the surroundings of the forest, and she was bloody hard to catch!**" An interrupting scream from the forest came from the official, and he was then seen running with several peck wounds on his arms, shoulders, and head before collapsing to the ground.

"**This is a hunt. First team to catch the bird will win the match, and you have to catch her by ANY means necessary.**" There was a squawk from the forest, as the bird was designed to do when settled into the forest completely, "**And there's your signal! BEGIN!**"

* * *

(A/N: teehee, yes silleh mortals! be patient for the next chappie! poof) 


	8. Into The Forest II

(HERE WE GO! 8, eight, ...er...how about i just get on with the chappie, nee?...hope you enjoy, and have read the first seven!)(blunder: in chappie 7, i said that Keiko dragged Saru to the hotel, what i meant was she dragged Saru to the stadium, but if you read on then you might have figured it out)

* * *

On the signal from the bird, both teams headed into the forest running at top speed, and Saru for one couldn't figure out why they did without a plan first of somesort to catch this thing. 

After running aimlessly through the trees, the Spirit Detectives finally stopped, and this is when Saru issued her question; "Can you tell me why we did that? Without a plan first?"

"There was a plan, to gain as much ground so we can know the basic schematics of the forest," Yusuke answered, causing Saru to blink unexpectedly and then huff, "Then WHY didn't you say so?"

"Because we would have lost time."

"But there's no time limit..." Saru pointed out, surprised she's letting Yusuke drag her into a petty argument.

And argue they did... Possibly worse than when Yusuke argues with Kuwabara, because Yusuke knows he can't hit Saru, and so must wint logically or outwit her.

"Hn...humans..." Hiei grumbled, and then noted something he thought was odd, this bird couldn't be tracked mentally. "Kurama." The two exchanged looks, and the red head nodded knowing what Hiei meant, then began to work at ceasing the argument.

"Let's split up to look for the bird, and we'll have Hiei and Saru-chan in different groups because they're the only ones who can use telepathy, is that fine?" Kurama said simply, and the groups were made. Saru, Kuwabara, and Kurama started heading to the left while Yusuke and Hiei went to the right.

"How do we know how to find this dumb bird?" Kuwabara complained, barely after ten minutes, as he walked in the back being hit with flying branches that Saru got out of her way. She rolled her eyes, "Honestly! You've never hunted before? Knowing your surroundings helps you to know your prey, it's like fighting. If you know the enemy, how he fights and such, you'll know how to beat him."

"Oooh okay." Kuwabara said, but even Saru knew it didn't sink into his head well and she sighed defeated. The three trudge on, all the while with no luck of any sort to show signs of the bird being this way.

-------Hiei&Yusuke-------

"This is hopeless... there's just too much green!" Yusuke complained, finding it rather difficult to find the vibrant red and yellow feathers of the bird, however he did notice how close they had wandered to the boundary of the forest. "I wonder... Hiei wait here." The fire demon stopped, hopping in a tree where he could watch the teen, and waited.

Yusuke walked to the edge of the forest and was looking at the white barrier set up. He charged his Rei gun to a minimal capacity, and aiming at his chest level shot the blast at the barrier. The energy disappeared, but for a brief moment when the energy blast hit the barrier he could see more forest, and wandered what that meant. This time, stepping closer, Yusuke punched the barrier and when his hand breached the barrier he saw the same small scene of forest. He also saw what happened to his Rei gun, it hit a tree, just like his fist did.

"That confirms that. Hey Hiei! I think I know why the bird doesn't leave, it can't and neither can we, this barrier will just put whoever tries to leave on the opposite end of the forest." Yusuke explained to the demon now on the ground.

"That's interesting." Hiei said simply, "I should probably mention this to you and the others when we meet up, but when you were arguing with Saru-chan I tried to track the bird through telepathy... My results were nill, it _can't_ be tracked mentally, Kurama knows this as well."

"That does complicate things... Did he tell Saru-chan by now?"

-----Saru&Kuwabara&Kurama------

"A-aaAchOO!" Wiping her nose, Saru grumbled, wondering what those two were talking about and knowing it involved her.

"Wait, since we had the two users of telepathy on different search groups, can't one of you just find the bird that way?" Kuwabara pointed out.

"I can try..." Saru said, concentrating as she walked hearing all the thoughts of the non-birds in the forest...

'_That crazy woman, making us hunt in this place! Why can't it be in a dessert? I really know my stuff there..._'

'_I wish I finished that pie..._'

'_...First pick off the back, then the front, and you'll have the creamy filling in the middle! Got it boys? Anything to assure that bird._'

'_I wish I could read minds..._'

Saru was hearing too many voices at once, but the one that got her the most was that it sounded like a plan for something. "H-Hey guys... I think there might be an ambush..."

The three stopped momentarily to take in any suspiscious movements, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary, and they pressed on.

-----

"That was close... So the female can use telepathy, eh? That might come in handy." A demon with the lower half of a wolf smirked, as his long furry ears perked, and turned to a man with long silver hair, "Your turn Akira."

Akira smiled mischeiviously, hopping from tree to tree to his target: Minamino Kurama. The psychic knew exactly how to lead the _front_ away from this "cookie". Even other demons were weak against a psychic's illusions, and Akira did that, copying the images and essense of Saru and Kuwabara. He then made his illusions sprint on ahead, startling the fox, and soon he followed after the illusions.

---------

"Kurama-kun!?" Saru looked back in front of her when she heard the sound of snapping twigs as Kurama ran off. She turned back to Kuwabara, and then they both tried to run after the fox, but he had too much of a lead and was too fast.

---------

"This is your specialty Mirousuke." The half wolf smirked again, and this time a being with the ability to transform his body leapt from the trees.

As he moved from branch to branch, his body slowly morphed into an exact replica of the bird they were supposed to be hunting, and purposely made himself seen by the two humans.

--------

"Hey, there it is I see it!" Kuwabara yelled, and then started chasing after Mirousuke's changed form.

"No wait! That's...damnit." Saru sighed, the teen had already ran too far to hear what she was going to say.

The _back_ was removed.

Saru sighed again, and sat against the trunk of a tree, taking a deep breathe she started to sing again. She rarely sang, but it somehow helped soothed her...

**Sumairu bacchiru kanamimo **

**mae saishou chiishiku shite**

**Shikeki wo motomete **

**tobidashitara munehatte arukou**

If it weren't for the painful memory that this was a song her dragonic mother sang to her, she would have noticed the exotic red and yellow bird that perched itself on the branches above Saru's head.

**Michiyukuhito minna no **

**roshisen wagikigitsuke**

**Odoruku hondo daitan **

**waraeru kuraini**

"My my that's a pretty tune..." A deep voice growled from behind the tree Saru was leaning against as the half wolf demon stepped out, "Don't you think so Shinou?"

On the opposite side of the tree, a devil bat stepped out, "I believe you're right Haku...for once."

"I'm going to ignore that." Haku glared, but returned his focus on Saru, who had by this point stood and backed into another tree and it was now when she saw the bird.

'_But how am I going to catch her with these two demons around me?_' Saru thought, not liking how they had cornered her completely, '_Well there's always begging for help from Hiei-kun..._'

\_Hiei-kun... Kurama-kun and Kuwa-chan have run off on me, chasing something that isn't there or real. Send Yuu-chan to deal with his friend, a psychic has control of Kurama-kun's mind, I'll be fine...maybe? Please hurry._\

---------

"Yusuke... Saru's in trouble, let's go." The two ran off, as Hiei briefed him of the situation through telepathy, and the split up to deal with respective friends. Yusuke had remained running straight, as Hiei darted off into the trees to the left.

Hiei had easily found Kurama, who had just ran past him behind him, and he caught up quickly. Though the psychic Akira saw this as an opportunity, he took Hiei's image changing it into the bird's image, and planted it in Kurama's mind.

Kurama stopped running, and turned to face Hiei, drawing his rose whip. Without a second thought, he aimed the thorny vine at his friend, but Hiei dodged just in time and began running in circles around the red head.

\_Show yourself psychic!_\ Hiei had locked onto Akira's mind, but couldn't locate him.

\_Now, now play nice..._\ Akira smirked, changing the image in Kurama's mind so the Hiei-bird attacked the Saru image.

Kurama's attacks became more frecquent and stronger, as he was trying to have revenge on the 'bird' that attacked Saru.

\_You see, little fire demon, if Kurama here can finish you off, I'll beat him later._\ Akira chuckled maniacly when Hiei cursed at him, \_And here's the kicker: That female on your team... Haku and Shinou are taking care of her._\

"What did you say?! You bastard!" With his fury, Hiei swiftly drew his sword, and rushed at Kurama, slicing enough of the tissues in his wrists so he wouldn't be able to hold the whip. He had also managed to find Akira, and lunged at him sword at the ready, but Akira had blocked in time catching Hiei's wrists in his hands so the end of the blade wasn't more than a few centimetres from his face.

"Close." Akira smirked, but his smirked faded when Hiei smirked, and leaned his head back, then came in headbutting the psychic. In the moment of confusion fro Akira, Hiei shouted at Kurama, and eventually got through to him but he was confused as to what was happening and why his wrists stung.

"Kurama, now!" Hiei shouted, as Akira began to struggle to get free, but he swiftly stabbed his sword through the psychic's cloak tangling it with his arms and planting the sword deep in the tree above Akira's head. "This close enough?" Hiei sneered, jumping away at the last second to avoid being hit with a seed Kurama shot at them. With his already bleeding wrists the death seed was alive when it hit Akira, consuming him instantly.

"Saru-chan can handle herself, let's find Yusuke and Kuwabara!" Hiei said, running off, and Kurama caught up instantly after stopping the bleeding of his wrists.

------

"A pretty face like you shouldn't be competing in an event like this." Haku smirked, tilting Saru's head back by her chin. She kept her hands down by her side, knowing better than to risk anything with these two demons, though fear was small it was still present in her mind and played it to her advantage.

"G-Get away from me," Saru stammered, causing both to chuckle, but it was a chuckle that sent more fear into her. It was almost as if they knew she was faking. Though in her fear, she kept making subtle glances at the bird, which was still perched in the tree, and wondered why she hadn't flown away yet. Stranger still, that she was almost watching these two demons gang up on Saru.

Saru let a scream of pain rip through the jungle when Shinou drew one of the pair of twin short swords from its sheath and stabbed her side, just above the hip, at the same time Haku's fangs sank into her neck deeply. All she saw before passing out from the pain, and soon to be blood lost, was a red streak mixed with yellow flying in her direction.

* * *

woot another chappie done! nine will be up soon (hopefully)... hope you enjoyed! ttfn silleh mortals!


	9. Into The Forest III

here we go! the conclusion to the forest! enjoy and sorry for the _really_ long wait !!

* * *

Saru blinked her eyes open, and found herself lying on an examining table in the medical office hidden in the Stadium, her vision was horribly blurred but by scanning the minds she knew that Keiko, Hiei, and Yusuke was present in the room with her along with doctors. 

"You're awake?" Keiko asked gently, squeezing lightly the hand that reflexively stopped her from leaving the room.

"Wh-what happened?" Saru's vision was still horribly blurred, but she managed to look at the blur of Keiko.

"Well..." The brunette started.

------before Saru passed out--------

Yusuke had managed to catch up with his friend, and almost beat him into believing the bird he was chasing wasn't real, just as Mirousuke changed forms to attack both at once.

"I'd like to see you try it!" Yusuke growled warningly, finishing the transforming demon off with one blast of his Rei gun.

"Wait, if I was chasing the wrong thing, and abandoned Saru-chan... Oh shit! Why didn't you tell me sooner?!" Kuwabara snapped idiotically. Soon the two were running off to where Saru's scream came from.

------Hiei&Kurama------

Neither exchanged words after Akira was dead, but started running to where Saru was being ganged. It wasn't long after they started running that Saru's scream echoed through the trees, and they glanced at each other before running faster.

-----after Saru passed out-------

The red streak was indeed the bird, and then flew off when Haku and Shinou tried to catch it, causing them to follow.

"Shinou...Please?"

"No. Haku, absolutely not!" Shinou said stubbornly as they chased the bird that flew away after taking a strike at them. "I can't catch this thing on my own."

"That's not true, you can easily keep up with the bird with your wings, and I can't fly." Haku pointed out, "Besides, I'd rather go back and eat that delicious looking human! Don't tell me you weren't tempted?"

"I'm above you." Shinou said simply, "besides, you're the brawn I need to catch the bird with I chase it in your direction." Haku huffed, "You're absolutely no fun, at all." Leaping and missing the bird by inches.

-------

Kurama and Hiei arrived on the scene of a bleeding to death Saru, just about the same time Yusuke and Kuwabara did, and he sent the two humans and Kurama to go after the bird. When the others had left, Hiei ripped the sleeves off his shirt, and tied the ends together so it would be long enough to tie around the wound in Saru's waist. He ripped more out of outfit to cover the wound in Saru's neck, and in blinking-speed, ran to a spring to wet the starburst headband he wears on his head, and then placed it on Saru's forehead to prevent her from catching a fever.

He knew better than to try and move her, so he had to rely on faith that Yusuke and Kuwabara won't get in Kurama's way, and sighed. '_I guess I could try..._' With a deep breath, Hiei's third eye opened slowly, and peered down at Saru's unconscious body. His Jagan glowed slightly, green in color, and soon he was in Saru's mind seeing her memories.  
-+-+-+-+-+-+-  
"Hahaoya! He liked it! He smiled again for me too!" A small, grinning Saru hugged the legs of a beautiful woman with the same hair and smile as Saru.

"That's good to know sweetie," The woman said, patting Saru's head gently, "Your father should be home soon, why don't you go meet him and tell him the good news?" No one needed to tell the young girl twice, as she bolted from the woman's legs out the front door of the mansion.

"Otokooya!"

"Saru-chan!" The young and handsome man, with matching eyes as Saru, smiled, and picked her up easily. "What good news have you brought me this time?"

Saru giggled, "He smiled again for me." She told her father in a less excited tone than before, as she hugged him tightly. "I gave him a pretty feather, and he smiled for me!"

Her father chuckled, "That's great Saru-chan! Next, you'll need to bring him flowers!" He teased, laughing again when the child whined and blushed heavily with embarrassment.

...the memory shifted...

"NOOOOOOO!" An older, identical to the present Saru, screamed with tears running steadily down her cheeks. It was too late, the bloody form of her mother had left the room, and Saru was too scared to chase after her. From her hiding spots she could hear the sounds of the battle her parents were fighting, though she also could tell they weren't winning. One thing she could tell was a voice, which was cold and malicious, it only wanted to kill and get what it wanted. Just hearing it sent shivers down her spine, and Saru could only imagine what this person looked like, afraid to actually know.

For what seemed like hours Saru waited in hope and hiding, and when a calm to the air settled, she emerged. The room was ransacked and bloddied, her entire mansion was covered with blood and mess, and she salvaged what she could before leaving. Saru had no direction, no hope of finding anything that would help, and then she thought of Hiei. Small hope glittered in her mind, and she ran back past her house as fast as her thin legs could carry her.

"Stay away!" In the distant she heard Hiei's voice, followed by a blood-chilling laugh, and that same horrific voice. "I don't think so little one." Saru froze with fear, if she were to interfer she would definitely be killed, and instead she ran away again. to afriad to help her friend.  
-+-+-+-+-+-+-  
Hiei pulled out of her mind, panting slightly, the images he'd seen were too real and so emotional. Something he's not particularily good with; also he was confused, they were all memories of him... But he didn't remember _any_ of this.

"Why do you know so much about me?" Hiei murmured to no one in particular, mindlessly brushing a strand of Saru's hair out of her face. In the distance Hiei could hear flapping of wings, and screams of the other team trying to catch it, he could also tell the bird was winning because the flapping was getting closer and the screams were going in the wrong direction.

\_Kurama, the birds heading for me, hurry back--I can't leave Saru-chan like this._\ The fire demon spoke telekinetiquelly to his friend, who relayed the message to Yusuke and Kuwabara, and they came running.

True enough the bird landed on a branch in plane sight of Hiei, and when the fire demon saw the feathers his Jagan closed tightly as if being burned by something, like a memory. +++++++++++++

(Hiei's P.O.V.) I sat in a tree in the late afternoon waiting for Saru to come back before her dinner. I always waited in this tree, it was my home as Saru had hers, and soon I could hear her footsteps through the leaf-covered ground. "Hiei! I've got something for you!" I heard her voice, and the message made my heart race a little. Since I was thrown off my home, I've never really gotten to like people, but she's different, there's something warm about her smile. As I jumped down, she smiled slyly, and then pulled out a red feather, the bright color was complimented nicely with a faint yellow and blue making it look green. "It's beautiful," I replied, with a somewhat awkward smile, which caused her to grin madly. I always wanted to see her smile, but it made me a little possessive in the sense that I wanted her smile to be mine and no one else's. I took the feather from her, and tucked it away safely before we started playing again until she had to go to dinner...  
++++++++

(normal P.O.V.) When Hiei's memory faded, he focused on the bird once more, only to find it a few feet in front of him. What further baffled him was when the bird landed on Saru's chest gently and just gazed at him through it's vibrant amethyst eyes.

For a few mintues, everything seemed to fade from the background, and the two continued to stare at each other. Hiei tried small subtle moves, and the bird did nothing. He tried fast and startling movements, and still the bird did nothing. He then thought of a way to end this obnoxious bird-chase, which had lasted long over three hours, and taking Saru's wirsts gently, he carefully moved them towards the bird.

Hiei froze when the bird ruffled her feathers before settling back into a comfortable place on Saru, and slowly he wrapped her arms around the bird's body. He was startled a bit when the bird gave a sudden squawk, and gradually the forestry around them sank into the ground.

"**Team Urameshi is the winner! A miraculous catch by Saru, and as expected this battle had not gone without injury!**" Jess announced after the trees had completely vanished. At this time Kurama, Yusuke, and Kuwabara had walked over to where Hiei and Saru were, as well as a couple officials with nets to catch the bird once more. "You don't want to do that," Hiei warned them, in a surprisingly uncharacteristic tone for Hiei. The officials looked baffled at each other, as Hiei stood carefully with Saru and the bird in his arms, "Look, we'll just bring the bird back to you. What time do you need her?"

"Last match of today, about 20:30." One said, and then they walked away, leaving both teams to walk (or be carried) off the arena. Hiei immediately took Saru to their team's infermary so she could be properly looked at.

------after Saru woke up after passing out-------

"Oh..." Saru blinked, "That's what happened, so I caught the bird?" She asked once more and got a series of nods from those around her. By now she got her vision back, but closed her eyes praying to her father for his blood to finish healing her wounds. Her wish was granted as her body temperature rose dramatically, causing the doctors to panic, until Hiei told them otherwise.

In the next few hours, Saru was held in the room, and about 19:45 she walked with Keiko to the officials room, with the bird in her arms.

"Be good little one," Saru murmured to the bird, nuzzling her gently before handing her back over to the officials. Keiko walked with her as they caught up with the Spirit Detectives, and then all six of them walked back to the hotel, well Keiko and Kurama as the human teens raced each other. The other two racing were--believe it or not--Saru and Hiei, who had been arguing telepathically until Saru ran off, followed by Hiei.

"I won this round Saru-chan," Hiei smirked smugly at the dragonic female, and Saru smirked back, "There's still plenty of races for us Hiei-kun."

Thirty minutes later, after Saru had managed to sneak a shower in, Keiko and Kurama both arrived back to the hotel room, and Kurama set to work in the kitchen while Keiko went to talk to Yusuke. Pretty soon, the hotel was filled with petty arguments from the two teens, and the only to watch was Saru since Kuwabara had found video games on the T.V. She rolled her eyes, sitting next to him, "Pass the cotroller." Eventually Kurama halted the squabble in time for them to eat, and it was actually civilized throughout until someone mentioned dessert.

This time, though, to give Kurama a break from the kitchen, Keiko dragged Saru to help her bake something. "I'm useless in the kitchen." Saru flatly told her, but Keiko didn't listen as she instructed Saru on which ingredients to gather. "Hitomi's the one who cooks in my family." Saru tried telling her over and over, but Keiko had selective hearing at the moment, and it wasn't until the kitchen nearly caught fire that Keiko listened.

"Told you so." Saru mumbled grumpily, as Kurama put out the small fire, and Kuwabara and Yusuke was in a laughing jamboree. Hiei simply rolled his eyes, though no one could actually what he was thinking or doing, and a small smirk curled his lip. The evening dragged on, as Saru was the first to retire to the room she shared with Keiko, and fall asleep. Keiko was not too far behind her, after a quick good-night to Yusuke, and she too went to bed.

Soon the only left in the living area was Hiei, and his unknown thoughts, but tonight they focused on Saru. '_Why? She's a simple human with dragonic blood, big deal, there's nothing really special about her. But... Her smile hasn't changed._' The corner of his lips curled upwards in a soft small smile, as he clearly saw the Saru from his memory and from not too long ago when she was laughing about nearly setting the kitchen on fire. '_I'll have to talk to her..._' The fire demon thought, before closing his eyes, and shifting to a more comfortable position and soon fell into his own world of slumber.

* * *

what new battles await? pwease be patient! and i will have them up as soon as possible! ttfn! apologies for absurdly long wait!! 


	10. Alli or Foe

okay, new chappie! I'm excited! enjoy! uber-gomen nasai for the ridiculous wait!

* * *

Saru blinked her eyes, rolling over to look at Keiko's still sleeping face, and sighed sitting up and stretching. Under the door seeped the smell of a fox hard at work in the kitchen, it smelled almost as good as her mother's once did, or Hitomi's for that matter. With a groan, Saru forced herself up and to the bathroom, and feeling more awake she walked into the door since she was unaware that Keiko had locked it. Now, awake and grumpy, Saru entered the living area, only to find her suspicions were correct: Kurama was indeed cooking. She was amazed how a teen-aged boy (ideally) could wake up at... 07:48...

"You're up early, Saru-chan." Kurama's soft voice rang into her ears, dragging her back to reality.

"Huh? Oh, yeah ... so are you, Kurama-kun..." The dragonic girl yawned widely, sitting at the table, "I'm impressed you can get up this early..." Kurama merely chuckled, placing a plate of eggs and bacon in front of her.

She smiled happily, the smell bringing her to her sense more, as she ate the delicious food. "You should have a cook off against my brother, Kurama-kun. I know he'd like the challenge," Saru said, half done, and now fully awake.

"Maybe I will when this blows over." Kurama mused to the idea of challenging a human, all in the name of good sport. '_Let me out..._' A voice from Kurama's past snarled into his head, making him collapse to his knees and clutched his head, muttering 'no' over and over.

"Kurama-kun?" Saru asked, getting up to tend to her friend, as Yusuke, Kuwabara, Keiko, and Hiei entered the kitchen. Kurama stood just then, perfectly fine, and used an excuse of being tired from the battle, which worked to allude the concern of every one but Hiei. The fire demon glared at his friend, being the only one to know why Kurama collapsed like he did, and he had heard the voice as well.

--Stadium--

Saru yawned, bored of watching Kuwabara fight someone exactly like himself, and the demon was one of the most pathetic and primitive on the planet. A copy-cat demon, and of all the fighters, it _had _to be Kuwabara... Half the audience was asleep.

"Why milady, you're forced to watch such a boring fight?" Greg's voice came from her left, as Riley and Jake followed him.

"Unfortunately, and Kuwa-chan hasn't figured it out. Or he has, and isn't doing anything about it." Saru sighed, crossing her arms once more. "Is your team fighting today?"

"It is, but not for two rounds, I would love for you to watch it." Greg smiled handsomely.

"I would come, but I'll see what my team is doing first." The dragon shook her head, noticing that Hiei was leaning on the same post she was, but hidden out of sight, listening.

"Oh... Very well then, this is the room number we're staying at if you have any questions or so about this tournament." Greg smiled, bowing and handing Saru a business card. She looked over it curiously, before pocketing it, as they walked away when Hiei came into view. Riley growled slightly at his arrival, while Jake's eyes seemed to gleam.

"What the hell did they want?" Hiei asked, his face frozen in a glare, he seemed to not have noticed the business card.

"They invited me to watch their fight, it might not be a bad idea for all of us." Saru said.

"Only invited you; is what you mean." Hiei corrected her, and added, "Though is that wise to leave for team for that?"

"For what?" Saru asked; hating Hiei's smug and unreasonable tone right now.

"What else? Most were human," Hiei explained, "Which means they refer to-" **SLAP**

"HOW DARE YOU?! I'M HUMAN TOO," Saru yelled, glaring at the fire demon she just slapped across the left cheek. "IF YOU CARED AT ALL FOR ME AS NOT ONLY A TEAMMATE, BUT A FRIEND, YOU'D BE ABLE TO TRUST IN MY DECISIONS!" With that she stormed off to their locker room.

Her shout had woken the sleeping audience members, and distracted Kuwabara's opponent from blocking a kick that named the human teen the winner, as he then walked off the arena.

"Should I ask?" Kuwabara asked, fearing learning what made Saru angry more than his fight with a bloody-thirsty demon.

Kurama simply shook his head, as he then went up the the arena to fight.

--Elsewhere--

"SARU?!" Keiko called, running up and down streets looking for her friend. "Where did you go?!" No luck, the dragon couldn't be found anywhere, and she was too worried to notice she was being followed.

"Please answer me!" Keiko tried again, but the result was still nothing, and she had walked upon a rather dark alley. Three pairs of hands shot out of the alley, grabbing the brunette, and pulling her into the darkness.

"Look what we found," A dark voice mused, "A delicious looking human." He smirked, and got a few snickers of agreement, "What'd ya say boys? Shall we indulge a little while everyone's distracted by that tournament?"

Many sharp fangs grinned in response all moving closer, and the closest set to Keiko's skin--her mouth is covered making her unable to scream--gets kicked hard enough to break his jaw.

"What the-!" One asks but suffers the same fate, and a cracked rib or two as well.

"Insolent little bitch," The first voice snarls, swiping claws towards the assailant, only to receive a block and brutal knee thrusted into his stomach. Soon all hands and mouths are trying to attack this hero, and soon all fail miserably, retreating further into the darkness whimpering pathetically.

Keiko was sitting against a wall in fear and relief, someone had saved her, she couldn't tell who since it was dark but grateful nonetheless. "Thank you."

"That's what they get for trying to eat my friend."

"SARU-CHAN!?" Keiko gasped, Saru was her rescuer!? "Where have you been?!" She asked, getting up and hugging the girl tightly, "I've been so worried about you!"

"I was following you actually..." Saru said, slightly short of breath since Keiko was hugging too hard, "And it's a good thing I was too..."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you," Keiko said over and over, only stopping when Saru got fed up, "Yes, okay, okay... I get it, but can you stop hugging me? I can't breathe."

"Sorry!" Keiko said, letting go, but grabbed her hand and led her out of the alley. "Too scary in there." Which made the dragon chuckle, "Indeed..."

"Is it too much to ask what you and Hiei-kun were arguing about?" Keiko asked tentatively, but apologized when she saw Saru look at the ground with an unreadable expression.

"I hate that Hiei doesn't remember me... It's worse when I have his memories too," Saru said solemnly, which caught Keiko off guard, and the brunette didn't know what to say.

"I mean, he was my friend... And now... It's like I hardly know him anymore." Saru continued, "What should I do Keiko?"

That was a good question, Keiko didn't have the answer, but she tried anyway... "I know they say time is the best... But with Hiei, if it's something this important he'll get impatient." She said, giving Saru a hopeful smile, "And I know he can be reckless when it comes to things he cares about."

Saru looked up at her with a tiny smile, "Thanks Keiko..."

"You're very welcome," Keiko grinned, glad to get Saru smiling again, "Now I don't mean to be a nagger, but you should head back to the stadium... I imagine it might be you turn to fight soon."

Saru chuckled, "Yeah... Guess it would be, those demons that wanted to eat you were like a warm up fight. They were really barbaric too."

--Stadium--

"Please give us two more minutes," Yusuke begged the announcer, since everyone was waiting on Saru's account.

"Her fault for disappearing like that." Hiei huffed.

"Your fault for yelling at her," Kurama pointed out, making the fire demon huff once more.

"**One minute. If she doesn't show, your team loses by default,**" The announcer said to Yusuke.

"No one has to lose," Saru's voice came loud and clear as she stood by the entrance to the hall that led back to Urameshi's locker room, and she walked forward to the arena. Yusuke and Kuwabara sighed with heavy relief, Kurama just smiled to see her presence once more, and Hiei... Didn't care.

"**Ten-Count fighting match.**" The announcer explained once more, "**One of you has to either be unconscious or unable to move for a count of ten.**"

Saru nodded as well as her opponent, a female water demon, and each posed off in a kick-boxing style thinking of their attacks. In blinking speed the water demon rushed forward, thrusting an elbow at Saru's neck, but the dragonic girl blocked throwing a knee into her gut.

She backed off, coughing slightly, "Not bad for a human."

"I'm more than a mere human," Saru said in return, smirking just as the demon was, and it was her turn to attack. Three quick steps, with matching punches and jabs, and Saru was close enough to get a critical hit. However, the demon blocked, and they separated once more. This continued for almost half an hour, just strength battling, and both were pretty tired as they were panting heavily. Light bruises and cuts were along their arms and legs, as the two girls seemed evenly matched.

"Come on Saru-chan! Beat her down!" Kuwabara shouted, becoming bored of this fight, though his fight was more pathetic.

"She can't hear you." Hiei said bluntly, "Neither of them can hear anything..."

True enough to the fire demon's words, both were concentrating too much to really notice anything but the fight.

Saru was in her own world of concentrations and techniques; how to beat this demon? Could she do it without calling upon her parents? At this point it was hard to say, they were evenly matched in strength and speed, but as a demon she was sure to have a few tricks up her sleeve.

Saru's suspicions were correct; when one of her punches landed, her hand got wet. The demon had made a clone of water to take the punch instead of her body, and used the brief moment of confusion to move behind Saru and aim a kick at her back. However, Saru caught on quicker then she'd like, and leapt over her head in a back flip, landing a few feet away from her.

On Saru's next kick, the demon pulled the same trick, except this time she made the water freeze on contact that prevented Saru from escaping. The dragonian girl was sent flying by another kick that landed square in her chest, and rolled to the side to avoid being stepped on when the demon rushed her. Swinging her legs around, she knocked the demon to the ground, and used that time to return to her feet.

Gaining distance by backflipping once more, Saru locked eyes with the demon, thinking, and began to form a plan. She didn't like relying on her parents' powers all the time when battling, and figured out a way to get the demon to attack herself. Not actually attack herself, but force the demon to wear herself thin.

Kicks, punches, water, and flips...All this happened for minutes on end, when finally the demon showed signs of faltering, which got the audience cheering and shouting. They had been watching, the fight wasn't something to be ignored, after all a human was even matched to a demon.

Saru smirked, as the demon was beginning to show signs of exhaustion, and used this opportunity to launch a planned attack of punches. She started by running directly at the demon, letting her block the first, and then with a speed to match demons she circled around and threw more punches.

The crowd began to roar with the fight, cheering Saru on, and finally she swept the demon's legs from under her and as she fell punched hard into her chest. The dust settled, as the demon showed no sign of movement, as Jess began counting... "**Nine, Ten! The demon is down, Saru wins!**"

Saru panted heavily as she left the arena floor, and headed back to her team, shaking her hand slightly. She preferred not using violence, but she didn't have a choice here, and her hand hurt slightly from all the punches she threw.

"That was awesome!" Kuwabara yelled astounded as he continued to ramble of Saru's fight. Everyone seemed to ignore him, but he didn't notice as he followed when they walked to the infirmary to have Saru's hands looked at. When everything was cleared up and set to action for the next round the group decided to stay and watch, Koenma and Botan even came to watch, and talk about the progress of the case as of yet.

"There's nothing we can see as suspicious Koenma-san," Kurama said politely. Yusuke and Kuwabara were watching the fight too much to have a decent conversation, Keiko had been talking to Saru and Botan, and Hiei... is being Hiei.

"That's too bad, but I have a hunch it might be the sponsor." The ruler, in teenager form, said in thought.

"The sponsor?" Kurama asked, giving a confused look, "Ah yes... Fighting demons to determine a winner so he could use them to overthrow the Earth, or something like that. We just need a way to find out for sure." He let it go that Koenma had told them this before, but he guessed the tiny ruler is under a lot of stress lately with this case.

"Yes, and security is extremely tight, for humans, as not one of my informants can get inside." Koenma sighed, "This is troublesome... I need results soon, so I can get the right authorities to apprehend him before it's too late for everyone." Kurama simply nodded grimly, and watched the fight with the others.

Saru was watching the audience, scanning it thoroughly, she felt really vulnerable for some reason... Someone's eyes were boring into her soul, and she didn't like it.

"Saru-chan, is something wrong?" Yusuke asked, sitting next to her.

"I'm not sure, there are too many minds to scan for one specifically, but I feel like I'm being watched," She said, giving Yusuke a worried look, even her voice was shaky.

"That's odd," Yusuke said seriously, "Normally people watch the fighting..."

"Yeah I know, that's why I'm scared," Saru admitted. Throughout the remaining fights for the day Saru kept feeling uncomfortable, and squirmed non stop from that paranoia.

Their next match was delcared victory by default since their opponents weren't even in regulations or approved by the officials, and so they went back to the Hotel. Koenma accompanied them, discussing with Yusuke and Kurama about how to get information from anybody. Saru was listening, as she played with the card that Greg had given her, and wondered if he knew anything. Of course she'd have to go without telling anyone, especially Hiei after his last display of lack of trust.

"Tomorrow... Since we don't fight until the afternoon," Saru mumbled to herself, and then sat down to eat another delicious meal made by Kurama.

And so, when the sun rose again from the sleep of night, Saru left early not disturbing any others, and hopefully to escape from Kurama's and Hiei's sharp minds. "Room two zero nine..." She read the card, "Strange the put the room numer on the card, oh well." She shrugged it off and descended a couple floors to room 209, and knocked softly.

When she got no reply she knocked harder, probably loud enough to wake the neighboring rooms, and still nothing! "Ingrates," She muttered and turned to leave, her eyes were locked to the side and at the ground so she didn't notice the person she ran into until she fell on her butt. "I'm sorry!"

"That's fine," Came a cheery, familiar voice, and Saru saw it was Jess. The sponsor's daughter smiled and held out a hand for Saru to stand up, and smiled more when Saru gripped lightly with her own smile.

Saru was surprised at the ease it took Jess to pull her to her feet, as a strange shiver ran down her back, because of her family history she has a keen intuition about people. Yet Jess seemed to make her shiver in the worst way.

"What are you doing about so early?" Jess' question brought Saru back to her senses as she let go of Jess' hand.

"Oh just wandering around," Saru lied, giving an uneasy smile, "And maybe looking for breakfast."

"Why didn't you say so!?" Jess grinned, and turned to leave, "Follow me!" She began to walk off, and Saru followed cautiously, not forgetting that chill from eariler. Then again, this was a mere human, so maybe it wasn't all bad?

Jess seemed to prove right when it comes to food, Saru could smell the pancakes, milk, and other breakfast foods waiting in the continental area. "Breakfast is free to all competitors," Jess explained as she gathered a plate of food, urging Saru to do the same.

The dragon did so, still watching Jess carefully, trying to figure out what was causing that chill, though her results were nill. Saru didn't like invading people's minds but on certain occasions she had no trouble with it, but she does respect the privacy of those around her.

"You should start eating Saru, or the bowl will start leaking," Jess poked fun at her, since Saru had simply stared at her the entire time, "Or is it because you're distracted by my beauty?" That woke Saru up, the girl shook her head, flustering her answer that made Jess laugh.

"It's not that!" Saru protested again, and childishly ate her cereal--mush at this point. But her mind picked up something about the way the human spoke that sentence, '_I'm imagining it right? The human's harmless..._'

* * *

eeek i cant think of where to end the chappie, but i think there should be good, and i will update as soon as i can! please bear with me.


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